


Let's Build Steampunk Disneyland on Mars

by Alien_ships



Series: Steampunk Disneyland [1]
Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Domestic Fluff, Dungeons & Dragons References, How Do I Tag, M/M, Origami, Ramen, Steampunk, Texting, Xeno loves MCR so much, falconry is a thing, some alcohol, there's a lava lamp
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:22:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 38,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25786555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alien_ships/pseuds/Alien_ships
Summary: Another uni student AU? Seriously?Well, you’re not entirely wrong, this is a college/university AU indeed because I love them but let’s add professor Xeno into the equation, who’s not only teaching Senkuu but also lives together with Stan in the flat right above Gen’s.Lamps will die, chocolate supply will not be sufficient, Xeno will sulk listening to emo music, Gen will be sly, Senkuu will mess up his math.And let’s hope the selfie with falcon Fluffy will turn out nicely because the grade for the falconry class depends on it.(This is inspired by my own student experience and the longer I think about it the weirder my uni seems to me)
Relationships: Asagiri Gen/Ishigami Senkuu, Stanley Snyder/Dr. Xeno
Series: Steampunk Disneyland [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1918312
Comments: 77
Kudos: 180





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! 
> 
> Recently, I just can't get enough of Stan and Xeno, they are just too cute!  
> And I love the joke about how they stole Senkuu's cat <3 
> 
> The study programme described in the fic is pretty much the same as the one I had at my uni so it's real. But well, it was in Europe, I don't expect Japan to be as supportive to individual study programmes or out of the box thinking but well, this is just an AU.  
> The general idea was that a student could sign up for literally any course as long as you asked nicely. For example, I did economy + cognitive science (only my first year) + Japanese studies + film theory. I know someone who was studying history + math + literature. Generally, as long as you've proven that the class would help your development, you could do anything.  
> Most of the students were posh assholes or really smart admirable individuals with broad interests. Recently I've been thinking that a huge part of Dr. Stone's cast would fit quite well there.

The day Gen met the leek guy for the first time was also the last day the light in the corridor leading to Gen’s front door was working. Ever since then, he’s been forced to look for the keyhole in the darkness or to turn on the flashlight in his phone every time he got home in the evening.

It all started quite innocently, he didn’t suspect at all that the events of the day were leading straight to his light’s doom. As he was about to enter his flat after a long day of research in the library, he noticed an odd-looking boy sitting on the stairs leading to the higher floors of the building. His leek-like hair looked a little familiar, Gen supposed he might have seen him around the university campus. It was a pretty safe guess since due to the school’s proximity, almost every young person in the neighbourhood was a student.

Still, even if they went to the same university, Gen wasn’t comfortable with a stranger sitting next to his door so he decided to intervene. Especially, since he knew that Ukyo was inside. He texted earlier that would have a nap but still, if things went sideways, Gen could always call him for help. Sleepy Ukyou was deadly so the guy stood no chance.

“Are you waiting for someone?” he asked casually, making the leek boy look up from his phone.

“Yeah,” he replied politely but Gen picked up some annoyance in his tone but not necessarily directed at him. “Sorry for creepily hanging around your staircase, I was supposed to pick up a book from my professor but he’s running late,” the boy answered awkwardly scratching his head.

So definitely a student, most probably science major since as far as he knew only one university professor lived in the building, in the flat right above him. Everything seemed to be adding up perfectly, except for the fact that Xeno definitely wasn’t the type to borrow his books to random students. But well, he also was the type to pick favourites so maybe that guy was just one of them. Gen had a feeling Xeno would appreciate his hair.

“Hm… Okay. I’ll leave you to your phone then. Good luck with the professor. Be careful, Xeno-chan is kind of moody today, I think.”

“Thanks. I appreciate the advice.”

Gen entered his flat, leaving the stranger behind. As he expected, Ukyou was nowhere to be seen, the door to his room was shut. It seemed he was still sleeping off the marathon of night and morning shift that he had been forced to sign up for. The lava lamp they kept in the living room set on bright red made him even more sure, it was the colour indicating that Ukyou wanted Gen to be quiet. Since they both had pretty irregular lives and slept at odd hours, Gen came up with this way of communicating and he was still thinking it was brilliant.

Gen quickly put down his bag and took out his phone, immediately switching the sound off. He opened the chat with Xeno and Stanley having decided it wouldn’t hurt to make sure if the guy outside wasn’t a creep, just in case.

**Memetalist**

_Hey, have you guys lost a leek?_

**Dr. Xeno**

_I don’t know exactly what you are indicating, Gen-kun. But I am indeed_ _mentoring_ _certain individual who’s hair_ _slightly_ _resembles a leek._ _And he’s supposed to come over around now,_ _therefore_ _I can see how you’ve run into him. However, due to Stanley’s so called ‘chill driving’ we’re going to be home no sooner than in twenty minutes._

**Uncle Stan**

_He seems like a good kid, make him a coffee_

_Play nice and we’ll buy you some cola and feed you a dinner_

**Memetalist**

_Don’t drive and text, Stanley-chan! It’s dangerous!!!_ _＼_ _( >o<)_ _ノ_

**Uncle Stan**

_There’s a traffic jam and I’m stuck in a car with pissed control freak of course I’m looking for a way to die or at least end up in a hospital_

**Dr. Xeno**

_Stanley_ _is having a bad day because his_ _discounted eyeliner sold out. Please, ignore him. However, I do encourage you to give my dear student some_ _beverage._

Gen pondered for a moment, contemplating if cola was really worth it and also there was sleeping Ukyou but then again, it was just twenty minutes and to be honest he felt a little intrigued. It wasn’t that often that Xeno liked a student enough to mentor him and Gen didn’t really recall any of them coming over. But then again, he didn’t remember Xeno calling anyone ‘his dear student’ except a certain boy who was aspiring to build a rocket.

Curious, he poked his head out of the door putting on one of his best smiles. The leek guy looked up at him inquisitively, Gen had to admit he was quite handsome.

“Xeno-chan says he knows you and he’ll need some more time so I should invite you in for some coffee,” he said, showing off his best smile.

“Do you want to invite a random guy in just because a weird, almost middle-aged man told you to? What did he offer?” the leek glared at him suspiciously.

“That’s a secret~ I’ve just met you I can’t possibly tell you how to buy my soul!” Gen pretended to be scandalized. “But you should know I have a special place in my heart for cola,” he added, lowering his voice to a conspiratorially whisper. “In case you’ll ever need something from me.”

“I’ll remember that,” the other boy smirked.

“But you have a point, inviting in some strangers who didn’t even introduce themselves sounds awfully hazardous. What if you decide to use me for science research without my consent?”

“You’re not wrong, I tend to do that to people sometimes,” he scratched his head, clearly not as bothered as he should be, assuring Gen that he was just as dangerous as Xeno. “I’m Ishigami Senkuu, by the way. We could always have coffee here, that’s a win-win. No stranger in your flat and Xeno will give you your cola or whatever he's promised.”

That definitely would solve the problem with Ukyou and his sensitive ears so he agreed to Senkuu’s plan without hesitation.

“Asagiri Gen. That’s a fabulous plan, Senkuu-chan! Actually, it’s not that I don’t trust you, but my roommate is sleeping and I don’t want to wake him up so it would be perfect if we could just sit here,” he smiled sweetly. “I’ll come back with coffee. Black or with milk? Sugar?”

“Black’s enough,” Senkuu gave him a polite smile. “Thanks.”

“No problem, Senkuu-chan.”

Gen went back to his place and quickly fixed some coffee. He guessed probably the sound of the coffee machine did wake Ukyou up in the end but his friend was used to being woken up by even the slightest noise so Gen had no doubt that if the surrounding would get quiet again quick enough, Ukyou would have little trouble getting back to sleep.

He grabbed a picnic blanket from the closet and holding it in one hand, and two mugs in another, he left the flat, gently locking the door after him. As soon as Senkuu noticed him, rushed to take the coffees away, allowing Gen to set up their little camp in front of his door. He contemplated getting some pillows but in the end, decided that it was not worth the effort.

They sat down, coffees in hands and then Gen finally took a moment get a closer look at Senkuu. He liked to do that before talking to someone, quick assessment of the person helped him choose the approach and always made the conversation go more smoothly.

From what Gen could see, Senkuu belonged to the rare super-nerd species. He gave off vibe a similar to Xeno's. Just one look into his vivid eyes made Gen sure he was smart, he would think so even if he didn’t know that Xeno took him under his wings. Compared to some other scientists Gen had met before, he seemed to be polite and conscious of surroundings which were good news. He was kind of handsome too, even the leek hair was somewhat fitting, he looked even more like an edgy mad scientist thanks to it.

Gen also noticed his hands were a little rough with scratches and a few scars, one of them, a small dot on the pinkie looked like a burn from some chemical. Gen guessed that was proof he wasn’t only about the theory but also practice. A future engineer perhaps?

There was one more thing about him that absolutely stole Gen’s heart away. Senkuu was wearing a worn-out t-shirt with Doraemon eating ramen printed it. It was so extremely adorable Gen almost smiled for real, breaking his impeccable facade.

“So you’re a student too, Senkuu-chan? Under Xeno-chan? I heard he’s super cruel and fails people without mercy! Be careful!”

“I know. But he’s the best in the field so there’s no way I’m running away just because he gives a lot of homework,” Senkuu smirked. “So… how do you know Xeno? You’ve just kind of indicated that you go to uni too so it’s a little weird, he’s a professor after all.”

“Our roommates kind of worked together at one project around the time we were looking for a new place and here we are,” Gen explained vaguely but with sufficient details to satisfy Senkuu’s curiosity. “I’m a psychology major, although I’m graduating this year,” he noticed Senkuu’s twitch in a disproving grimace for a second. “Don’t you dare say something bad about my science!”

Senkuu hesitated for a second.

“if you like it, it’s cool,” he shrugged. “But just to say, psychology isn’t really a science.”

Gen immediately frowned. He hated how easily scientists tended to disrespect him and look down on his passion.

“Psychology is science Senkuu,” he said with a sweet but poisonous smile. “Even if we reject the obvious premise that human mind is worth studying to reach its full potential, there is so much we can get from psychology and social studies that are my second major and you probably want to disregard in the same way. Yes, it is cool that if you know physics you can tell how generators and phone function but thanks to psychology we can stimulate people to overcome their traumas, manipulate them, make them more efficient by creating a more healthy work environment and so much more. And who performs your science? Those very people who are dependent on each their own mind. Oh, and don’t forget that using psychology, one can much more easily find research sponsors. And find a way to work peacefully with other scientists that tend to be very peculiar people. Your science has psychology to thank for how you can work on your graphs and atoms in more ways than you think.”

He stopped because at some point Senkuu’s eyes looked away from his and a shade of blush was visible on his face.

“Are you listening to me, Senkuu-chan?”

“Yes, it’s just…” Senkuu looked back at him. “I’m kind of impressed with the quality of your outrage. So, Mentalist, do your best and guess three things about me if the psychology is so powerful.”

Gen was wondering if he broke Senkuu or it was all part of his plan.

“That’s not how psychology works at all, Senkuu-chan! But luckily for you, I’m also a part-time magician!” Gen beamed, going along with whatever direction Senkuu picked.

Senkuu snorted loudly, making Gen’s smile fade.

“I was serious, Senkuu-chan!” he gasped. “You’ve hurt my feelings!”

“Wait, really?” Senkuu glared, clearly doubting him.

“Well, maybe not that hurt because I can see where you’re coming from,” Gen admitted. “But I am a magician.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding.”

“I am not~ Do you want me to go grab cards from my room so I can show you some awesome tricks?”

“Just guess those three things about me,” Senkuu compromised some uneasiness showing on his face. He masked it by taking a long sip of his coffee.

Gen smirked. That would be amusing. He took a drunk a bit of his sweet latte before he started with the show.

“Okay then. One. You still live with your parents.”

Instead of being devastated or horrified, Senkuu looked excited like a kid with a new toy.

“That is exhilarating! I live with my dad. How did you guess?”

“Your T-shirt is really cute, Senkuu-chan but I can tell you’ve been wearing it quite often the last couple of years. Usually, people don’t bring stuff like that if they move away or if they do, they just wear it around the house since it gives off the homey feeling. However, I’m still a little surprised you decided to wear it when going to meet an extremely elegant professor with impeccable style.”

“Or I could always be a fashion disaster?” Senkuu suggested raising his eyebrows.

“No, your majestic hair tells me otherwise,” Gen winked teasingly. “And as I said before, the T-shirt isn’t bad, it’s actually adorable but old. A Doraemon fan?”

“It’s literally one of the best shows ever,” Senkuu insisted. “I thought so when I was a kid and I think so now. Although my dad is probably horribly sick of it since I’ve been watching it to breakfast for the last fifteen years or so.”

Gen couldn’t help giggling. He noticed that Senkuu was watching his reaction keenly, almost as attentively as Gen watched his.

“I liked it too when I was smaller but I haven’t watched it since,” he admitted sincerely. “Ready for another one?”

“Do your best,” Senkuu encouraged him with a smirk.

Gen pondered for a moment. Saying that Senkuu was studying physics was too easy. He was probably in the program sponsored by JAXA since it was Xeno’s little toy and he picked up most of his favourite students there.

Gen tried to remember where exactly he has seen this hair before and then he felt illumination come over him. Liberal Arts Faculty. That was it. He saw Senkuu there. Liberal Arts was a really weird place, created to become home for many vagabond researchers that didn’t fit in anywhere else. Their students were scarce therefore the university head decided to promote by sneaking the courses into the individual studies program. It wasn’t that harmful, especially since the program had lots of other benefits like allowing the student to easily double major, sign up for pretty much any class the university offered. The only downside was the need of a mentoring professor for each student, an extreme amount of paperwork and a course at Liberal Arts Faculty per semester.

As the last year student of the individual program, Gen had a lot of experience with Liberal Arts. He once had a class there about queer film, another about natural cataclysms and also he learned the basics of Nahuatl language just because he could.

There was no way Senkuu would be at the Liberal Arts unless he was a part of the program too.

But… that didn’t answer all the questions.

“You’re doing individual studies at uni, majoring in physics, possibly also taking courses in chemistry and engineering. And aerospace engineering sponsored by JAXA to be precise. And Xeno-chan is your mentor because there is no way he would borrow you something otherwise. Also, Xeno never takes on first-year students as a rule so I’m guessing you’re a second or a third year. But not fourth year, you have still to much light in your eyes.”

“I admit, you’re quite perceptive,” Senkuu smirked. “But aerospace engineering? And individual program? A lucky guess?”

“I think I saw you at Liberal Arts and aerospace engineering is the quickest way into Xeno-chan’s heart,” Gen smiled. “I doubt he would like you enough to take you under his wings if you weren’t interested in that and as part of the individual program, you’d have no excuse not to study it. And well, your hands kind of gave you away, hence the chemistry.”

“You’re in the individual program too?” Senkuu cocked his head and smirked. “I’m not even surprised, you seem like the type and definitely are smart enough. Do you have any recommendations for the Liberal Arts? The registration for the new semester is coming up,” he mentioned.

“Oh, my friends strongly recommend falconry last year!” Gen shared with excitement. “The whole semester they teach you about falcons in biology and culture and then for the last class they bring a real falcon and everyone can take a selfie with it!”

“You plan on signing up?” Senkuu asked. He made an effort to sound casual but Gen picked up a hint of something else in his voice, like as if he was concocting some kind of a scheme.

“Maybe~” Gen smirked as couldn’t resist pushing a little further. “If I did, would you join me, Senkuu-chan?”

“Possibly. Depends if you’ll guess the third thing, Mentalist. You didn’t earn my respect quite yet.”

Gen was about to open his mouth with a cheeky riposte ready in his mind but he suddenly heard Xeno and Stan’s voices downstairs. He knew he didn’t have any time to spare so he decided to act quickly, using the momentum.

Senkuu was cute, smart and kind of snarky. Gen found himself enjoying this combination more than he expected. Also, all the small glances, grins and even a faint blush here and there, especially when their eyes met, made him sure it wasn’t exactly one-sided.

On a spur of a moment, he decided to go for it since the odds of running into someone as interesting as Senkuu were extremely small and he didn’t want to miss his chance. Also, Stan always insisted that the majority of scientists was actually socially inept and one had to be straightforward with them.

Taking this all into account, Gen leaned in and smiled softly, looking right into Senkuu’s eyes. He lowered his voice making it only barely louder than a whisper.

“The third thing is that you will sign up for the falconry because you find me attractive and want to know me better.”

For a moment Senkuu lost all his composure and stared at Gen with his eyes wide open, red covering his cheeks. It lasted only a few seconds, then he quickly put himself together and a mischievous smug appeared on his face.

“You are so sly, Asagiri Gen,” he said, sounding oddly happy about it.

“Oh my, should I take it as a compliment?” Gen giggled.

Suddenly, Gen noticed Stan just a few steeps of stairs down aiming at him. Before he realized what was going on, a bar of chocolate hit his head. Gen twitched in pain but quickly masked it with outrage.

“Stanley-chan! Did you attempt on assassinating me?!”

“That was an easy catch, you just blew it, don’t blame me,” Stan cocked this head. “The chocolate is a token of Xeno’s gratitude.”

The professor caught up to Stan appearing by his side on the stairs and promptly rushed to see if Gen was okay. He got down and quickly assessed his the spot where Gen got hit looking for the injury but of course, there was nothing to find. It was just lightly thrown bar of chocolate, not Stan’s combat knife, after all. Relieved that everything seemed to be fine, Xeno patted Gen on the head with care.

“Sorry, kitten, we just wanted to feed you. Thank you for taking care of my student. Evening, Senkuu,” he said, turning to his guest.

“Hi, professor,” Senkuu smiled. “You have a very nice neighbour.”

“Of course Gen is nice, look at him, he’s just so lovable,” Xeno ran his hand through Gen’s hair again, this time making Gen feel a little awkward. “And that’s Stanley, by the way. He lives with me,” he added casually, standing up. “Let’s go up, I’ll give you the book. How is the linear regression going? Did you find any interesting variables?”

“Yeah, I did and you’re going to love it, prof.,” Senkuu replied with a confident smile. “Thanks for the coffee, Gen,” he said passing Gen the almost empty mug. “It was good.”

“No problem. Just don’t explode anything upstairs, please! Ukyou’s still sleeping. Have fun with your regression!” Gen beamed, picking up the blanket.

“Please, Gen,” Xeno answered seriously. “We’re scientists.”

Gen watched them leave and had honestly no idea what Xeno meant by that but couldn’t help slight uneasiness that has come over him.

Over an hour later, Xeno and Senkuu, with Stan’s help, decided to move downstairs some kind of enormous generator that was too tall to fit in the elevator. They used some planks of wood to bring it down the stairs but seemed to have forgotten to take a few details into consideration. One of them was the innocent lamp that the accelerated machine crushed into, leaving only shattered glass and some metal and plastic bent parts on the floor.

Gen could only wonder by what means the machine had been dragged into Xeno’s apartment in the first place and why.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the comments! And so many kudos! 
> 
> I hope you'll enjoy this chapter because I had a lot of fun writing it ;)
> 
> Just a small confirmation, yes, it's a multichapter. You can expect about 8 chapters. Tbh, I planned less at first but when I'm writing about Xeno, he seems to be getting out control and takes over the fic. But well, I don't really mind, let's just go with the flow and add more Xeno everywhere.

When Gen heard a knock on the door a little before 10 PM on Wednesday, he had little doubt who could that be. He exchanged quick glances with Ukyou but his flatmate has already changed into his pyjamas, lit up his laptop and gaming equipment. It seemed he had some important MMO battle that was about to start on his agenda so Gen knew that there was no point in even discussing who should open.

He wasn’t surprised in the slightest when he saw Stanley’s audaciously beautiful face behind the door. He already had his cigarette out, which probably meant that he had already passed the limit today and Xeno didn’t allow him to smoke any more in their home.

“Stanley-chan! To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Do you have chocolate ice cream or something like that?”

“You know, usually you ask the neighbours for something small like some sugar or eggs, not chocolate ice cream,” Gen pointed out, a perfect smile glued to his face.

“Do you have it or not?” Stanley raised his eyebrows and made an uneasy movement with his hand.

Suddenly, Gen was sure that if he kept resisting, Stanley would be ready to barge into his home and raid his fridge with or without his permission. He decided that the little leftovers they had definitely weren’t worth putting up a fight against Stan’s cravings.

“We may have half the box,” Gen gave in.

“Good. Now, hand it over.”

With a loud sigh, Gen marched to the kitchen and quickly came back with the box that seemed somewhat lighter than he remembered. Never the less, he passed it to Stanley. He wasn’t expecting Stan to give it back after few seconds but he did, leaving Gen a little offended, feeling like it was his kindness that has been rejected, not the ice cream.

“That’s not enough,” Stanley stated. “Put on your shoes, we’re going to 7-11 and then on a rescue mission. Ukyou, you in?”

“Busy,” Gen’s flatmate didn’t even look up from his laptop monitor. “But I’ll eat what is left of the ice cream, just put it down there.”

“I have a life too, you know,” Gen pointed out to Stan, fishing out from the closet the first pair of flip flops he could find. “Quite an interesting one, I must say. Maybe I had plans this evening.”

“You’re necessary, this is not up for a discussion,” Stan announced.

Gen sighed heavily and followed his friend outside the building. As soon as they passed the front door, Stan lit up his cigarette with a visible relief painted all over his face.

“So, what’s up, Stanley-chan?” Gen asked knowing very well at this point that something was very wrong. “Did you get someone pregnant? Oh my, or were you a beautiful girl all along and now you’re pregnant and crave ice cream?” Gen tried to joke but despite his best effort, it turned out a little awkward. Never the less, Stan seemed to appreciate it because his mouth twitched in a lopsided smile.

“I have a spy mission for you,” Stan said. “A really important one. And you can’t decline.”

“It’s important to you, isn’t it?” Gen guessed easily enough. “Fine. Just give me a good debrief.”

“The leek boy’s group was turning in their research project today,” he started and took a long drag of his cigarette.

Gen involuntarily froze for a second. He didn’t expect Senkuu to come up so suddenly, especially coming from Stan. After the lamp incident, Xeno did mention him a few times when he was ranting about some research using too much of scientific jibber-jabber for Gen to pay attention and that was it. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Senkuu, and he did actually signed up for falconry classes but he didn’t want to openly meddle too much into Senkuu and Xeno’s student-pupil relationship. Especially, before getting to know Senkuu a little better. And he had a bad feeling that it was exactly what Stan was going to ask him to do.

“Xeno got overexcited because ‘Senkuu’s science is always so elegant’ and so on,” Stan rolled his eyes as he continued. “Well, the disappointment of his life, Senkuu made a ridiculous math mistake on the first page and not the whole paper is worth nothing. Xeno couldn’t decide how to grade him, even though he should definitely not let him pass with something like that. Since he was taking too long, I took his pen and he just had to tell me what to write. And I failed his favourite Japanese brat.”

“Oh no,” Gen gasped.

“Oh yes, I did. Xeno blames himself and is so depressed even ten boxes of chocolate ice cream won’t be enough to fix it. I haven’t seen him so devastated since My Chemical Romance disbanded.”

“I can imagine. Seems like an appropriate reaction,” Gen agreed.

“So now, you are going to go on facebook or whatever you brats use these days, find Senkuu, tell him to fix his math asap and send it to Xeno before midnight so it’s still before deadline.”

Well, that wasn’t too bad. Gen expected Stan to come up with much worse solution to this problem. He pulled out his phone and started the app.

“No problem, Stanley-chan~ But… Do you know what exactly he did wrong?” he looked up.

“Something in the calculus but I wasn’t really paying attention when I read it. I didn’t expect Xeno to take it this badly. That’s why when we’ll get ice cream, you’re coming with me upstairs. The paper is on the kitchen table, snap a picture. I’ll distract Xeno.”

“Won’t it be suspicious if I come over so late?”

“Gen,” Stan patted him on the shoulder. “You’re our stray cat, you’re always welcome. Just be prepared for a little hell there.”

Gen laughed awkwardly. They’ve already reached the store but Stan took a moment to take a few more drags of the cigarette before putting it out. Waiting, Gen tapped on his phone. Finding Senkuu was quite easy, he just scrolled through the group of the individual program. The paperwork needed for their program was immense so anyone who wanted to survive joined the group and asked senpais for advice on how to win against the system.

He quickly added Senkuu as a friend and without waiting for him to accept scribbled a few short messages.

**Asagiri Gen**

_Evening, Senkuu-chan~ I feel cheated I thought you were super smart!_

_It looks like you really messed up some math, it made Xeno-chan depressed >_<_

“Found him,” Gen related to Stan.

The military man nodded in approval. He put out his cigarette, placing the butt safely in an empty package he always carried. Gen always found it admirable how gentle and environmentally conscious Stan could be from time to time. Although usually all the gentleness and sweetness that Stanley showed somehow seemed to trace back to Xeno. Gen guessed the professor must have given him a lecture about cigarette butts impact on the environment at some point.

Stanley marched into the store like he owned the place, grabbing a basket on the way. Gen followed, watching as numerous, seemingly random items found their way in. In just a few minutes, Stan managed to fill the basket with chocolate, beer, a new volume of some gore manga he liked, tea, his favourite matcha ice cream, melon pan, yakisoba and more. Gen felt the phone vibrate in his pocket so he stopped in the corner of the store to check it.

Senkuu accepted his friend request.

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_Seriously?_

_Are you sure Xeno isn’t just mad that my handwriting isn’t ‘elegant’ enough?_

Gen snorted.

“Oi, Gen, come here!” Stan called him over. “I need a translator.”

“Coming to the rescue, Stanley-chan!” Gen responded enthusiastically but his smile faded away when saw where his friend was standing. “Seriously? Are you serious, Stanley-chan?”

Without any shame, Stan pointed to the bottles in front of him.

“What’s the difference between the sparkly blue lube and the less sparkly red lube?”

“Oh god. I know you’re a foreigner and don’t give a damn what clerks at the local convenient store think about you, but please, Stanley-chan, refrain from dragging me down with you.”

“I’ll get you a melon pan if you tell me.”

“That’s cheap. I didn’t think you’re so cheap, Stanley-chan,” Gen scoffed.

“Then pick something.”

He looked around and suddenly he noticed an enormous package of matcha pudding in the refrigerator on his left. He quickly grabbed it and presented it to Stanley with a grin.

“That’s my price, Stanley-chan.”

“Are you really going to eat it all by yourself?”

“I will give it away to the poor,” Gen lied smoothly. He was planning to share it only with Ukyou.

“But you are carrying it. So? Should I take the red one or the blue one?”

“The blue one is with glitter that glows in the dark, the red one is raspberry scented.”

Stan stared at him with his eyes wide open. He blinked a few times and the without hesitation grabbed the blue one, putting it into the basket. The smirk that appeared on his annoyingly pretty face made Gen feel even more awkward than he already was.

“I seriously didn’t need to know that,” Gen muttered. “You could have told me to look away.”

“You knew I would pick that one either way.”

“Maybe I did but it’s different.”

“Your phone is blinking, talk to the leek boy,” Stan urged him. “Just less flirting, more math fixing.”

“I have no idea where it came from, Stanley-chan!” Gen let out a scandalized gasp.

“Oh, I and Xeno heard you last time. Don’t worry, we talked it through and we accept it. But now stay focused on your mission.”

He moved over to the cash register giving an aloof smile at the girl behind it. She gulped and nervously asked him if he wanted a bag. Stan didn’t lose his cool just smoothly reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out his own material bag.

Gen raised his phone up trying to keep his composure in check. He didn’t expect a confrontation with Stanley, it made him feel somewhat uneasy and flustered. He breathed in and out a few times and then looked down at his phone screen.

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_Gen, did I really mess up my math?_

_Damn, don’t tell Xeno but I was kind of doing it last minute yesterday instead of sleeping so I could have written something stupid now that I think about it_

_I_ _was really dead yesterday_

**Asagiri Gen**

_Senkuu-chan I am traumatized_

_I just found out which lube Xeno_ _is_ _using_ _probably_

_A_ _nd I think Stan wants to give me the sex talk_

_A_ _nd yes, your math was bad_

He felt Stan pulling his sleeve. He looked up and followed Stan out. When they were on the street, his eyes dropped to the phone again and he smirked upon reading Senkuu’s next messages.

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_Please don’t make me think about Xeno and sex I beg you_

_He’s my teacher_

_Is he even capable of dating someone_

**Asagiri Gen**

_O_O_

_He and Stan-chan have been together since forever, Senkuu-chan_

_You should watch them closely, that’s as good relationship as you crazy scientists can have!_

**Ishigami Senkuu**

… _Are they really together?_

_I mean… I was there and I can see that but_

_Stan is so pretty and Xeno’s forehead is big enough to play tic-tac-toe_

Gen chuckled and then took a deep breath trying to decide what to write. Stan looked at him in some strange amusement.

“That’s some awfully long talk you two are having,” he pointed casually.

“Those are all important messages, Stanley-chan, believe me! They are all essential for our plan!”

**Asagiri Gen**

_Be careful Senkuu-chan! Don’t get deceived by Stanley’s good looks, he’s very devilish!_

_Also, calling another man pretty? I’ll get jealous! Just jokin’~_

_FYI ofc they didn’t tell me about the dating thing but I know and they know I know and this game is pretty stupid but fun so hush hush just in case – if anyone asks they are just childhood friends_

_Anyways, Stan-chan is telling me your math was so terrible that Xeno had to fail you, my dear Senkuu-chan, I’m sorry_

_And he’s really sad and disappointed with you so I and Stan are buying chocolate, ice cream, and apparently lube to make him feel better_

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_Oh god, you’re serious_

_tbh for a moment I considered it to be a mind game of yours and wasn’t sure if you’re not just preparing the ground to text me about something else_

Gen snorted when he read that. But also, he has gotten a strange, soft feeling inside. Something was telling him that it wouldn’t be easy to fool Senkuu with his tricks and instead of frustration, he felt strange comfort.

But well, on the other hand, Senkuu was probably just cautious, it could mean nothing.

**Asagiri Gen**

_I’m flattered you think so highly of me~_

_But yup~_

_Currently, you have failed_

_I’ll sneak into Xeno-chan’s_ _kitchen_ _in a moment and_ _to_ _try to get to a pic of where the error is_

_Stan says that if you correct it before midnight it should be okay, just pretend you found the mistake on your own and beg to resubmit since it’s before the deadline_

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_Thanks_

_If you’ll manage to get the picture you’ll be like my science fairy godmother_

**Asagiri Gen**

_Ho-ho~ Senkuu-chan is finally acknowledging my magic craft? ~_

“Gen,” Stanley said in a menacing tone that made the boy shiver.

“Stanley-chan, your aura just got terribly menacing, please control it, it’s interjecting my chakras,” he begged.

“Stop flirting,” Stan demanded smiling a tad bit too sweetly. “And tell the nerd to fix his math. You’re distracting him.”

“Please, don’t kill me, Stanley-chan! Xeno-chan would be sad.”

Stanley’s exquisite face remained unmoved which only urged Gen to tap his smartphone screen faster.

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_It’s a long way before it comes to that, Mentalist_

**Asagiri Gen**

_Senkuu-chan, Stanley-chan is ordering me to stop talking to you and make you fix your math asap_

_He’s a very scary man, Senkuu-chan, don’t be cheated by his extraordinarily good looks_

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_I’m already on it_

_Don’t die on me there_

_Just send me the picture if you’ll get it_

**Asagiri Gen**

_Good luck, Senkuu-chan~ ttyl_

“Done!” Gen singsonged receiving a satisfied hum from Stan as praise. “So, Stan-chan, care to share how exactly you’ll distract Xeno-chan when I’ll sneak into the kitchen?”

“It’s Xeno we’re talking about, I’ll just improvise,” Stan didn’t seem too worried. “I have a lot of experience. You’ll just give him a hug and then run to the kitchen to put the ice cream in the freezer or whatever. Get your hands on that paper no matter what.”

“Yes, sir!” Gen mocked him with a grin.

“What time do you have classes tomorrow?” Stan asked clearly concocting some scheme.

“Oh no, what are you planning to do with me, Stanley-chan?” Gen gasped. “Are we having a rainbow gay girls’ night to make Xeno happy? I would love to have you do my makeup!”

“Rainbow?” Stan scoffed.

“That’s the part you’re bothered with?” Gen smiled innocently.

An aloof smile appeared on Stanley’s face. He reached out his hand and patted Gen on the head in carrying gesture.

Just a few minutes later, Stan was already opening his apartment door. Even in the corridor, Gen could hear loud, sad emo music pouring from inside. He was well aware of Xeno and Stanley’s taste in music, particularly punk, progressive rock, Japanese rock from 90’s and early 2000’s, and above all My Chemical Romance. But tonight it seemed Xeno was putting an effort into letting the whole building know.

On the inside, Xeno and Stan’s home looked less like a flat but more like a steampunk exhibition turned into a living space. Gen hoped the landlord knew about the changes because there was no way his friends would get their deposit back after fixing a few rusted pipes to the walls so they could serve as retro lamps. And changing all the door inside the apartment to look like they were suited for a fancy bunker and not a 21st century apartment.

“Honey, I’m home!” Stanley announced as he walked in, speaking loudly enough to be heard over Gerard’s desperate wailing.

The volume immediately got down enough to allow them to speak freely, without the need to raise their voice. Xeno appeared in the corridor, looking a lot more fragile than he usually did but still maintaining his signature elegant appearance thanks to a shirt and dark cardigan that was reaching his ankles and resembled Gen a little bit of a vampire cape.

Gen noticed that his initial intention was to hug Stan but when he saw the guest he retreated as if to preserve his dignity.

“Stanley, I am not in a mood for your games, please refrain from mockingly calling me this way especially in front of guests,” he gave Stan a cold sidelong glance. “Evening, Gen.”

“Tough day, Xeno-chan?” Gen smiled charmingly. “Stanley told me someone broke your heart and now I’m feeling offended! How could you have not even told me about you had a secret girlfriend?!”

It was a really absurd game they were playing, nevertheless, it still extremely enjoyable. Stanley snorted openly but Xeno remained calm and composed.

“My secret relationship is doing perfectly well, however, I wish I could tell the same about your flirt with my soon to be former student,” Xeno’s long fingers touched his eyebrows in deeply pained gesture. “Stan and I are revoking our silent blessing.”

“Over little math?” Stanley raised his eyebrows. “Funny to hear it from you after you almost destroyed my room so many times but whatever. I need to put the ice cream in the freezer, come Gen, we should have some space for your pudding in the fridge.”

Xeno accompanied them to the kitchen but just leaned against the door frame, sulking instead of helping with unpacking. His gloomy aura was radiating with some extreme power that almost made Gen take a step away from him.

He tossed a glance at the carved table in the middle. There definitely were some student papers laying there, as Stan said they would. He could see Xeno’s handwriting all over them, in bloody red, so they were already marked.

“So what did Senkuu-chan do to upset you so much?” Gen asked casually, discretely moving a bit closer to the table.

“He committed a crime against a simple integral. People with no respect for calculus have no place in my life so I’m going to get rid of him,” Xeno informed seriously.

“I’m sure it was just an accident, Xeno-chan!” Gen shivered because, to be honest, he wasn’t that good at integrals and he hoped that Xeno would never find out. “And won’t be lonely without Senkuu? You were always so happy when you talked about him!”

“I assumed we shared fascination and respect towards science but I was wrong so we’re done. I’m not afraid to walk the science world alone, always have before,” he smoothly added a My Chemical Romance quotes in his statement.

Stan loudly shut the fridge and suddenly took a few steps towards. He leaned in and sniffed Xeno’s neck.

“You’ve been drinking without me,” he accused.

“I am not obliged to have you by my side whenever I drink, I’m an adult and I’m perfectly capable of fixing my own drink.”

Stan smiled warmly and ruffled Xeno’s hair with love.

“You’re so cute. Will you use your crazy science to make something delicious for me?”

“You are so despicable, Stanley. I am here, in despair, and you try to use me?”

“I would drink something too!” Gen added gleefully reminding them that they weren’t exactly alone. “Since you’re clearly offering.”

“Our guest demands your quality drinks, Stan,” Xeno suggested. “And I demand my ice cream.”

Stanley gave him a spoon and the last box of chocolate ice cream that he’d purposely left in the bag. To Gen’s greatest joy he took cola from the fridge next, along with some ice cubes from the freezer.

“Gen, be a good boy and fetch us whiskey glasses,” he said, walking out. Xeno followed close behind, already busy with the ice cream lid. Gen let out a relieved sigh as soon as he was alone and promptly took out his phone ready to take a picture as soon as he would see Senkuu’s paper. There were some new messages waiting for him but he didn’t have time to read them now.

His fingers ran through the papers on the table, picking a few of them up, checking if there was something underneath.

Senkuu’s paper wasn’t there. Gen double-checked but none of the names written on the top of page matched. He took a step back to seem less suspicious if Xeno came back and quickly opened the conversation with the leek boy.

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_You’ve really messed me up, I can’t stop thinking about Xeno and Stan now_

_It makes perfect sense how did I not see that_

_A few weeks ago Xeno came to the class with dark lipstick smeared all over his neck, I asked about it and he told me it’s charcoal from chem lab without even blinking_

_I feel so stupid for believing him now but he was so smooth_

**Asagiri Gen**

_Is Ishigami Senkuu your real name?_

_Because I don’t see your paper_

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_Yes it is_

**Asagiri Gen**

_okay I’ll keep looking_

Resigned, Gen took out three glasses and marched to the living room. Enormous TV on the wall planted in between nerdish bookshelves blinded him for a moment with its brightness but then he noticed two figures on the carpet, their back leaning on the couch. Xeno seemed to be pushing their little game or just was really sad since his head laid down on Stanley’s right shoulder and his whole body was leaning against the man’s side as if he was looking for support.

One look at Xeno’s face was enough to assure him that Stan was right and his boyfriend definitely wasn’t dealing well with Senkuu’s math mistake. The ice cream laid discarded on the floor, barely few spoonfuls missing. Xeno’s melancholic, pensive gaze was focused not on My Chemical Romance music video but on one of the lower shelves with a rather peculiar display. It was a student paper pinned to the vertically placed clipboard with a failing mark written in bold red, and some furious marking right at the beginning of an equation. Gen immediately knew that it was what he was looking for.

He took place on the right, passing the glasses to Stan who was definitely the most proficient at making drinks in the present company. He exchanged glances with him confirming that indeed that was Senkuu’s paper they were looking at.

“Do you think he’s been always using wolfram alpha for his math before? And he couldn’t do it after all?” Xeno sighed dramatically. “I feel more cheated than when I first found a lipstick in Stan’s room. Because we’re childhood friends,” he added, sitting up straight, “and I assumed he would tell me immediately about his girlfriend or a lipstick fascination.”

“Don’t you think you’re overreacting, Xeno-chan? It could be just an accident!” Gen repeated. There was an innocent smile on his face but on the inside, he blessed the internet for good calculators. The statistic course would be hell without them.

Stan glared at them and started fixing them simple drinks with whiskey and cola, Gen’s favourite. Xeno didn’t look like he was going to be picky at this point.

“I’m not overreacting. Just extremely disappointed that my formerly dear student, whom I considered a mind similar to mine, turned out to be like the rest of them.”

“But that was the first time Xeno-chan, right? Just give him some super hard matrix with integrals the next class, so he can prove that he can count after all!” Gen suggested hoping that Senkuu wouldn’t kill him the next time they saw each other.

He took out his phone and casually snapped a picture of the living room, the TV and clipboard included.

“What are you doing?” Xeno asked suspiciously.

“Just letting Ukyou know that I won’t be home soon since we’re having a funeral for Senkuu’s grades and the respect you’ve had for him,” he answered smoothly, typing a message to his flatmate. Only when he tapped on the picture, he send it to both Ukyou and Senkuu, quickly enough that Xeno wouldn’t notice. He left the chat with Ukyou opened just in case, so if Xeno glanced at his phone he would see the proof that Gen wasn’t lying.

“Here you are,” Stan changed the subject as he passed them their drinks. “They are strong, take your time because I’m not cleaning up after any of you.”

“You are disgusting, Stanley,” Xeno accused him but started choking as soon as he took the first sip.

“And you are so weak,” Stan chuckled clearly finding his boyfriend endearing.

Xeno sent him a loathsome glare and opened his mouth ready to argue but Gen was faster.

“Let’s toast! We can toast to flowers and cola!” he cheerfully diverted Xeno’s attention to avoid any possible conflict on this already gloomy night.

“It’s as if we would be toasting to you,” Xeno frowned.

“We could toast to the hopes of astrology and astronomy finally accepting each other but it would be pathetic after I and Xeno decided not to support your relationship with the leek,” Stan added.

“Now you two are just being mean,” Gen laughed sweetly but a little awkwardly. “Then, let’s drink to… gay marriage!”

He expected a reaction but not the horror on Xeno’s face and smirk on Stan’s. He blinked at looked at them curiously.

“He doesn’t know, right?” Stan asked with a malicious smile. “I’ll tell him.”

“Quiet, Stanley,” Xeno insisted coldly.

“We’re engaged,” Stanley announced proudly.

Gen froze, the drink halfway up to his lips. His wide-open eyes were staring at the couple in disbelief. His first thought, when he’d overcome the initial shock, was to sincerely congratulate them but something was quite off about the whole confession. First of all, Xeno wouldn’t allow them to end their little game so easily. Secondly, if it was true, Xeno would probably be embarrassed or at least he’d smile. Now, he was angry but seemed to be quite used to the engagement idea. Gen had no clue what it meant exactly but he’d gotten quite curious.

“Congratulations, you two!” he gasped, raising his glass.

Xeno cringed but raised his glass and drank a bit of what after a closer look turned out to be whiskey with a little bit of cola and ice.

“We’re going to be stuck in this miserable state for eternity,” he sighed.

“What happened?” Gen cocked his head. His phone was blinking with a message from Senkuu but he flipped it seemingly to give his friends his undivided attention.

“So this adorable nerd was building a robot trying to take over our elementary school,” Stanley started wrapping his arm around Xeno’s shoulder. “But he was so small he couldn’t lift some heavy boxes with tools.”

“Stanley, stop digging your own grave,” Xeno threatened him. “And that’s not cute at all.”

“He tried to force me into carrying it for him but I said no. So he tried to make my mum ask me to help him,” Stanley’s grin was growing wider with each sentence. “But she told him that it’s not how friendship works at all. But well, Xeno was a smart boy so he figured out that if you’re in a relationship you can make your boyfriend carry things for you,” Stanley was savouring every single word of his story. Xeno did his best to him his cool but his glass was getting more and more empty. “He was beating himself up for a few days, I finally asked him what was wrong and he told me that he needs me to be his boyfriend and carry stuff for him. As you can see, it was so romantic that I just had to turn him down because there’s no way I’m dating him just to help with his robot and to get dumped when we’re done with it.”

“Stanley, you’re so dead to me,” Xeno muttered after finishing his drink.

“So I told him that I would carry his science stuff if we were married and always together,” Stanley announced. “My sister even wanted to help us with a fake ceremony but he chickened out,” he poked Xeno’s side. “And told me that he can’t marry me until he knows for sure that aliens exist. I’m pretty sure he just came up with it because he panicked.”

“That’s a perfectly rational reason to postpone a wedding,” Xeno insisted.

He shook his empty glass with ice in front of Stanley’s face wordlessly asking for more. Stan took the glass for him but decided to continue his story first, much to Gen’s enjoyment.

“He was so cute and flustered I had to tell him that fine, he’ll still get all the marriage benefits if we’re just engaged and I will help him with the robot however he wants. But I didn’t want Xeno to slip away that easily so I told him that he cannot break off the engagement until the aliens are proven either. And here we are, over twenty years later, still engaged,” he announced happily with a wide grin.

“We’re not engaged. We were eight, I wanted a slave, you wanted to hold my hand when we watched movies, we made a stupid childish deal. End of story,” Xeno insisted trying to remain cold but Gen noticed a hint of blush on his face and found it awfully cute.

“But you never called it off, sweetie, we’re engaged,” Stan kissed Xeno’s cheek leaving a dark mark on it.

“You’re disgusting,” his fiancé responded, looking him right in the eyes, clearly not meaning it in the slightest. Gen was sure that if he wasn’t there, they would kiss.

He used this moment of distraction to steal a glance at his phone.

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_I can’t make out what exactly I did wrong but at least I know which part of the paper_ _he had a problem with, thanks_

Gen promptly put the phone down and drowned his glass.

“Stanley-chan! That was delicious~ Could I have more?”

As he asked, he poked his middle finger on the glass, subtly pointing at the paper. Stanley took the glass from him without hesitation, promptly finished his own and started on three new drinks. Gen could only hope he noticed the signal.

“Are you planning on having an alien-themed wedding? Or a steampunk one?” he teased them in the meantime.

“We are not talking about it, aliens do not exist,” Xeno scoffed. “Unlike students who steal my heart with their elegant calculus just to stomp on it with trivial mistakes.”

“We talked about it around when Xeno got the internship at NASA,” Stan provided. “Steampunk aliens. And everybody has to wear steampunk outfits approved by us beforehand. And we’re having a rocket-shaped wedding cake,” Stanley shared without hesitation. “And alien shaped balloons that glow in the dark.”

“We were drunk,” Xeno clarified. “Very drunk. Because I got a NASA internship. We also decided that we would get married on the Moon so our plans should not be treated seriously.”

“But whatever happens, I want Gen to be our flower girl,” Stanley demanded.

“Stanley-chan!” Gen let out a cry of joy.

“I’m not nearly drunk enough for this discussion,” Xeno sighed resting his head against the couch.

In response, Stanley put the glass with cold whiskey on rocks right in the middle of his forehead.

“Here you are, dear.”

“Thank you.”

Xeno reached out his hand to take the drink from Stan but suddenly his fiance lifted the glass up.

“Wait. Can you close your eyes for a second?”

“Will you do something stupid and immature?” Xeno frowned.

“Just do it.”

Xeno growled in displeasure but he did close his eyes. Stanley nodded at Gen who knew what to do. Sneakily, he sat up and took a steady, zoomed in picture of the equation below the TV, clear enough that he could read every letter and symbol. He quickly sent it to Senkuu.

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_I’m so happy you’re on my side, Asagiri Gen_

_I see what went wrong, god, that’s ridiculous, I literally added the integrals where I should have subtracted them_

_It was clearly not intentional, I changed – to + in one line because I was tired and read it wrong_

_I can’t believe he was ready to fail me_ _over_ _that_

**Asagiri Gen**

G _ood luck, Senkuu-chan!_

_And remember about midnight ~_

_You’ll make it right?_

_Can’t really talk, enemy territory_

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_ten billion percent sure I will_

_I still have the rough draft I just have to make a clean copy with good math_

_Hang in there_

“Stanley? What are you doing?” Xeno asked with his eyes still very much closed. Gen immediately put down his phone. He nodded, letting Stan know that everything was okay.

“Nothing really. I just wanted to admire your enormous forehead,” Stanley teased Xeno and he was immediately met with an icy stare.

“Very funny. My forehead is big because I have a big brain,” he insisted.

“I’m sure Stanley is trying to say he finds it attractive, you’re his fiancé after all,” Gen smiled sweetly feeling that their game of pretending reached yet another level.

“Yup, definitely I am in love,” Stanley smiled softly. “Enough to do My Chemical Romance karaoke whole night until we finish the discography or until my throat gives out just to make you feel better.”

“That means so little,” Xeno tossed him a sidelong glare. “With your smoker's throat, you won’t make it past one hour.”

“Let’s try out and see!~” Gen sing sang gleefully.

Xeno didn’t have to be told twice. It took him less than thirty seconds to find the karaoke version of ‘The Black Parade’. Gen loved singing so he was happy to join and soon he got completely seduced by the atmosphere of the grim party full of whisky, chocolate ice cream and sad songs.

Ten minutes before midnight he excused himself to the bathroom, planning to check up on Senkuu.

As strange as it may sound, Gen loved Xeno and Stan’s bathroom. Everything in the whole apartment matched the steampunk décor and was pretty much an art piece, the bathroom was no exception. Even toilet paper holder resembled a handle of some ancient machine. Also instead of a laundry basket, they had a small metal barrel that was surprisingly comfortable to sit on which was exactly what Gen did right after closing the door.

Just a few minutes earlier, Senkuu wrote a few messages to him.

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_Ok, I’m done. I’m sending him an email with math so exhilarating and elegant he’s going to cry_

_Could you please try to make him see the email?_

_He tends to be surprisingly bitchy from time to time and I’m a little uneasy if he’s willing to accept the second version of anything_

**Asagiri Gen**

_He loves remastered MCR albums_

_DID YOU KNOW HE AND STAN ARE ENGAGED AND ILL BE A FLOWER BOY?!_

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_Wow. Congrats on getting your dream job_

_Wait, they didn’t get engaged tonight right?_

**Asagiri Gen**

_Nope like twenty years ago_

_They won’t get married until there’s proof that aliens exist_

_I want to find aliens now so I can be the flower boy at a cool steampunk alien wedding_

_And also bcause I want to see them married, they are so cute_

_so so so cute_

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_you seem a little... drunk?_

_I can’t believe Xeno was so upset with my math that he needed to get drunk over it_

_when I’ll go to space I’ll remember to look for aliens for you_

**Asagiri Gen**

_Thank you~_

_You’re going to space?!_

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_That’s the plan_

_Xeno is helping me build a rocket even_

_well, he was_

**Asagiri Gen**

_Can I go with you? I like looking at stars_

_AND GOOD SPACE OPERAS_

_DID YOU WATCH GINGA EIYUU DENSETSU?! ITS SO GOOOOOOOOOOD_

_But no aliens there, just awkward adorable people_

_Oh I like that song I gotta go and sing_

_Bye bye_

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_Have fun_

_And please when you’re going home be careful on the stairs_

_Don’t take it the wrong way but you seem like the person who could trip and die_

**Asagiri Gen**

_You’re worrying~ I feel so loved! Like… 1% of how much Stan loves Xeno which is really really really an incredible amount of love_

Without waiting for a reply he jumped off the barrel and, humming along the sad emo ballad coming out of the speakers, he frolicked back to the living room only to walk onto Xeno and Stanley slow dancing together. Their intimacy was so astounding he took a step back when he saw them, unintentionally.

He took out his phone to text Senkuu about it as he quietly sat down on the couch.

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_1% is really a lot considering we talked twice in total and only once irl and they have been engaged for twenty years_

_Not a bad start I’d say_

He started typing back but suddenly Stan and Xeno sat down right next to him.

“Texting someone fun?” Xeno asked, his dark eyes drilling into his favourite neighbour. “Tell me about it.”

Gen noticed that about half of Stanley’s lipstick was smeared all over Xeno’s lips.

“It’s a secret~” he smiled charmingly.

“I’ll get it out of you eventually,” Xeno’s tone somewhere in between stating obvious and a threat.

“Speaking of which, your phone blinked a moment ago and I think you got an email,” Gen said casually pointing at the Xeno’s smartphone that was laying forgotten on the floor.

“Who on Earth could be rude enough to send emails at this hour…” Xeno picked up the phone and unlocked it. At this moment his expression changed immediately. “Senkuu…” his voice trembled and his gaze softened.

“What did the brat write?” Stan asked casually and used the moment of distraction to light a cigarette without repercussion.

“He noticed the mistake and is really sorry. He attached the corrected paper, should I accept it? I want to but I’ve already failed him, I can’t do that. And it would be unfair to the other students but it’s not as if I care about how they feel,” he wondered.

“I’ll help you with the decision-making process,” Stan smiled sweetly after breathing out a huge cloud of smoke.

He reached under the couch and suddenly took out a combat knife. Gen remembered the times when he used to be surprised by development such as this and even jumped up a few times. Now he was so used to it he barely blinked, maybe adding a small smile.

Without hesitation or a moment to aim, Stanley threw the knife across the room like it was just a dart. He hit straight in the middle of the clipboard with Senkuu’s paper attached.

“Shame, now if you give it back to him not only you’ll have to explain why you heartlessly failed him even though he said he’s sorry but also a confusing cut in the paper. Good luck.”

“We students live difficult, busy lives~” Gen reminded Xeno. “And Senkuu told me he wants to go to space and see aliens too so he’s working too hard and probably is tired~ He fixed the math before the deadline and he proved he can do it! Forgive him, Xeno-chan!” Gen whined.

Xeno took a deep breath, pushing Stan’s cigarette away at the same time.

“Okay. But only if the calculus is truly elegant,” he said.

Gen smiled happily since he knew there was absolutely no chance that it wouldn’t be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NEXT TIME: FALCONRY
> 
> But before that, check out this awesome art! Thanks BingX! <3 <3 <3   
> https://bingxxx.tumblr.com/post/639124005526323200/this-is-a-dcst-fanart-from-a-dcst-fanfic-this


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi~ Long time no see~ But at least the chapter is pretty long!
> 
> Hope you'll like it (❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*
> 
> I would also like to boast a bit about the fact that I MADE SENKUU COLA WITH MY FRIENDS!!!! It was delicious. Not exactly what I'd expect but really good, so good that we may actually make it from time to time. I also have a hunch that it may taste good with rum, we're yet to test that theory.  
> Anyway, Senkuu's cola is good. Very refreshing.
> 
> And...  
> While I was gone, I wrote two short Dr. Stone fics! Feel free to check them out!  
> One is actually side story to the 'Steampunk Disneyland', it's about how Xeno and Stanley got together  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/26394484
> 
> The other one is hanahaki/covid fic. I've never seen a funny hanahaki fic so I decided to write it myself xD And I really wanted to do a covid fic so here we are. A fanfic about Senkuu who thinks he has covid but is very glad he finds out that it's just hanahaki. And through most of the fic team is social distancing so there is a lot of texting  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/26515042
> 
> Pardon this little advertisement but I'm kind of proud of those two ❤️

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_And that’s why NASA went with the beehive design for 3D printed houses on Mars_

**Asagiri Gen**

_But_ _during_ _the final_ _presentation_ _the glass panel fell through the roof and shattered!_ _Wouldn’t there be a te_ _e_ _ny tiny problem if it happened on Mars?_

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_Yeah but with enough tests, we can most probably eliminate the risk of this happening_

_It was actually their first attempt so no wonder sth went wrong_

_And_ _if it did happen_ _on Mars_ _, then we_ _c_ _ould_ _still_ _finish the_ _roof_ _first and then_ _it’s just glass in a pressurised environment, Mars gravity is weak but it’s not going to fly away from the house_ _that easily_

_and if we have a house we can clean it_

**Asagiri Gen**

_I really like how you accepting you are of the possible fuckups on Mars_

**Ishigami Senkuu**

_There will always be fuckups the important part is that we can fix them quickly_

**Asagiri Gen**

_Like your calculus?_

**Ishigami Senkuu**

… _You’re going to keep bringing it up, aren’t you?_

**Asagiri Gen**

_Any chance I’ll get until the day I die_

“Gen, our porridge,” Ukyou nudged his flatmate on the side, reminding him of their breakfast.

The boy looked down and with a relief noticed the meal wasn’t even slightly burnt this time. Nevertheless, it was ready to eat so he turned off the heat.

“Thanks, Ukyou-chan~”

“No problem. Texting Senkuu again?”

Ukyou’s all-knowing gaze made Gen feel slightly embarrassed. Over the last few weeks, he’s been texting Senkuu a lot, mostly about random things like houses on Mars, clouds, why flamingos were pink, stuff like that. Mostly nothing personal, except for the few times they gossiped about Xeno. They just exchanged a ton of fun facts about the world, enjoying their little chats immensely. But Ukyou would never let him forget about how he’s burnt the last porridge because Senkuu was telling him about fractal geometry.

“Yup. We’re talking about houses on Mars, did you know that NASA made a competition for that? And a house that looks like a beehive won!”

“Cool,” Ukyou took out two bowls from cabinet. “But you know you’ll meet him in less than 3 hours, right?”

“I don’t really know if he signed up for falconry, we haven’t talked about it,” Gen tucked his hair behind his ear with a shy smile on his face, seemingly focusing on pouring the porridge into the bowls. “Here you go, Ukyou-chan!”

“Do you really expect him not to be there?” Ukyou handed him a spoon.

They sat down at the table and started with their breakfast.

“Please, Ukyou-chan. I’m sure if his schedule allowed it, he signed up. But…” Gen’s eyes drifted away to the window. He still had slight trouble with talking to anyone sincerely about his feelings even after years of close friendship like the one he had with his flatmate, it always made him feel exposed and insecure. “I’m a little uneasy about it. I love talking with him, he’s so smart and funny. And with a somewhat villainous edge at times, just like me. I keep thinking we could really get along but…But I’ve just noticed that it’s mostly me doing the flirting thing here. Don’t get me wrong, he’s super nice and says stuff indicating he would like to get to know me better but well… it’s not flirting per se. Most probably, he’s just an awkward nerd and that’s why. Not that I mind, you know I always preferred brains to brawn. But there’s also the thing that, let’s be honest, I don’t even know if he’s gay.”

“And what’s your gaydar telling you?” Ukyou asked matter of factly.

“I’m not certain yet,” Gen unintentionally started playing with his spoon, spinning it around with his fingers. “Definitely not entirely straight. But on the other hand, he seems to be horribly science-sexual, just like Xeno-chan.”

“So it’s fine, better even. To be honest, I’ve been a little worried about you. Ever since you’ve met Stan and Xeno, whenever you met someone new you kept comparing the relationship you two could have with theirs.” Ukyou said with a soft smile. “I’m happy you’re even interested in anyone at all. I thought they literally ruined you with their happiness.”

“That’s cruel, Ukyou-chan~ Especially since you never tell me about the people you date,” Gen huffed. He glanced at the clock and realised that it was getting late so he took another spoonful of the porridge.

“You know I like to keep to myself about this kind of stuff,” his friend cocked his head innocently. “But if any of them will get serious, you’ll be the first to know.”

“Aw, you’re so sweet, Ukyou-chan!” Gen smiled.

“And don’t worry about Senkuu, knowing your skill you’ll be able to say what’s on his mind the moment you talk to him face to face.”

“You’re right.”

Gen was more nervous than he should be and he’s spent the entire lecture about eye tracking mindlessly doodling instead of taking notes. He kept running various scenarios in the back of his head, ready for absolutely anything when as he marched the corridors of Liberal Arts Faculty. He even had cards stashed safely in his pocket so he could to distract Senkuu with a magic trick if something went wrong.

Not that Senkuu would buy it but Gen liked to imagine he’d respect him enough to go with the flow.

When he was just around the corner from the classroom, he stopped, deciding to sneak a peek before heading in. Some people passed right by him and went through the door, Gen’s eyes followed them inside the room and his eyes immediately met with Senkuu’s smirk.

The room was almost full with just scarce empty seats left. Senkuu was in the back corner, his chair turned to the side, moved a little too close for Gen’s liking to a pretty girl from the individual program. Gen knew her, she started uni the same year he did, they even sat next to each other during one obligatory lecture two years ago. He remembered she was interested in history and literature but he struggled to remember her name. He was pretty sure it was starting with R and it was rather short. Rina. Rumi... Ruri, it was Ruri.

Life was hard when studying at a few faculties, you’d just meet too many people to remember them all. No matter how hard you tried.

Ruri he met two years ago was smart and gentle and perfect in many ways. And now she was sitting very close to his little crush, their things scattered all over the table without clear distinction what belonged to Senkuu and what to her. She was smiling warmly as she patted Senkuu’s knee to get his attention since the boy was frozen looking at Gen.

He had to admit they looked cute together. Not what he would ship it if he was given a choice but if it was already before him, he would support them wholeheartedly, even if it did hurt his pride a little.

But well, they could also be close friends. Smart people tended to generally get along even if their fields of interest weren’t exactly matching.

Those scattered things really bothered him. The history textbook was definitely Ruri’s and it laid down closer to Senkuu while chemistry notes took over almost the whole desk. Awfully domestic. And that pat on the leg...

Since Senkuu already noticed him, Gen couldn’t afford to waste any more time, he put on his best smile and moved towards (hopefully not) the couple.

“Hello, Senkuu-chan! Ruri-chan, long time no see, you look as pretty as ever!”

Okay, maybe he’s pushed a little too much, for a second there Senkuu looked like he’s been slapped in the face. Was he mad Gen dared to call his maybe girlfriend pretty? Or perhaps, there was still a possibility, albeit maybe slight, that he was jealous that Gen decided to compliment Ruri instead.

Senkuu’s body language completely supported the latter. He was watching their interactions with strange fret in his eyes, like he has just been stabbed in the back and was fearing another spike would come.

“Wow, Gen, I haven’t seen you in a while!” Ruri cheered, completely unaware of Senkuu’s crisis. “Last time we talked you were vexing over your lease coming up, did you find a good place in the end?”

“Yeah, I live with my best friend and we have lovely neighbours,” Gen winked to Senkuu. The boy has managed to regain enough of composure to pull off a snarky remark.

“Yeah, they are absolutely lovely, I can’t wait to see them again. I saved you a seat,” Senkuu grumbled, taking the bag of the chair on his left. Gen gasped loudly, theatrically exaggerating his happiness, and walked over the desk to sit down by the couple. Probably not a couple, maybe, he still was unsure. And the longer he watched them, the less the idea seemed to fit. Their body language was claiming otherwise and to be honest they were lacking the chemistry most couples had. He guessed they were just friends, rather close ones but not exactly besties like him and Ukyou or like Xeno and Stan pretended to be. Ruri and Senkuu knew each other for years probably, hence the comfort and proximity, but they were missing something this special sense of awareness best friends had when they exchange looks in public or turn toward each other for no special reason. Senkuu and Ruri we doing neither of that, as for now.

“How kind of you, Senkuu-chan~ I’m moved, I was worried for a second I would have to play a good student in the front~ So, do you two know each other?” he asked casually wanting to test his theory.

“Senkuu is close with my little sister and our childhood friend,” Ruri explained. “Kohaku would never graduate high school if he didn’t tutor her in math last year!”

Gen was still smiling but thoughts were running wild in his mind. Of course he was right about their friendship, it didn’t surprise him. But now Ruri was trying to make Senkuu look good in front of him, that was sure. It fit with her character, she seemed like a supportive shipper. Were she and Senkuu close enough that he told her about their little flirting? Probably.

He tossed a quick glance at Senkuu either was really comfortable with their talk or was really good with keeping up a straight face.

Gen couldn’t resist a little mockery.

“In math Senkuu? Really? It’s a little hard to believe after your little accident…”

“Shut up, Mentalist, it was a one-time thing,” Senkuu let out an exasperated gasp but there was a shadow of a smirk playing on his lips.

“That I will remind you of till the day you die~” Gen announced sweetly making Ruri giggle. She knew. And she probably knew much more.

“Careful or I won’t hesitate to tell Xeno when you make a math mistake,” Senkuu scoffed. “But speaking of…” he reached in his bag and pulled out a mysterious bottle of dark liquid. He placed it on the desk right in front of Gen. “Thank you. For saving my grade, my dignity and generally myself from Xeno’s wraith.”

Gen blinked and took a closer look at the ominous drink. He found it rather suspicious, there was no etiquette, nothing that could help him identify the liquid. He would guess it was a dense tea if not for a few bubbles here and there, visible especially when he picked up the bottle.

Senkuu glared at him with awful confidence. By their side, Ruri was watching his every move with tension. Still, Gen had no idea what was in the bottle, he had a notion that he was missing something obvious.

“What is this, Senkuu-chan? Decided to poison me so I won’t torment you about that integral anymore?” Gen chuckled.

Senkuu moved his chair around and looked straight at Gen. He was welcomed with an uneasy smile on the other side.

“It’s a home-made cola,” he explained calmly.

Gen’s eyes opened wide. They down on the cola bottle and then moved back up to look at Senkuu. Senkuu made him cola.

Strange warmth spread around his chest and without asking him for permission crept up his cheeks. Was he blushing? He took a deep breath to calm down.

He suddenly remembered Stan’s happy smile when he told him about the time his favourite lipstick was taken off the market and Xeno spend a few days in his lab working from dusk to dawn only to eventually emerge holding a lipstick almost exactly like the one Stanley used.

So that was what Stan was feeling back then, Gen thought. He suddenly understood his friend’s happy smile and there was little he could do to stop a similar one from forming on his own face.

“You’ve made it especially for me?” he asked in disbelief.

“Well, you did save me the other day and you said you liked cola, I pay attention you know,” Senkuu awkwardly scratched the back of his head doing his best to conceal his own uneasiness behind a mischievous smile. “I could just go to the store and buy you a bottle but I thought you’d appreciate something more personal.”

“Are you trying to make me blush, Senkuu-chan?” he asked with a grin.

“You? Nah, I don’t think it will be that simple. Although… it might be a step in the right direction,” Senkuu admitted after a short pause. He sounded pretty sure of himself but a small quaver at the end didn’t slip Gen’s attention, even though he was actually he was screaming internally at this point but he did his best not to let it show. Ukyou was completely right, a few minutes with Senkuu were enough to get rid of all his doubts. And also, Senkuu was unbearably cute.

“Well, aren’t you smooth today~” Gen giggled as he cocked his head playfully.

Senku momentarily lost all his composure, clearly not expecting such a direct approach, he looked away. Ruri, who was seemingly going through her notes and pretended not to be listening in, snorted.

“I might have spent some time thinking about what say, to be honest…” Senkuu admitted looking back at Gen.

A skittish smirk appeared on Gen’s lips. Then, he leaned in, his mouth so close to Senkuu’s ear that the other boy should feel his breath on his neck.

“To be honest, so did I, Senkuu-chan,” he whispered but quickly moved back, feeling Ruri’s keen eyes on him.

There was a short, slightly awkward silence that came after. Gen glanced at the clock, they still had over five more minutes before the class was bound to start. The professor was already there, she was getting her slides and equipment ready.

“Hey, Gen, do you have something after this class?” Ruri suddenly asked.

“I have a free period, are you inviting me somewhere, Ruri-chan?” Gen smiled. “I might have had a loose arrangement to eat with a friend but they won’t be too upset if I cancel or bring someone along.”

“I have a class after this one but Senkuu would love to have lunch with you since he has an hour of waiting before his mentor’s office hours start,” she replied innocently. “Actually, that was the next thing he was supposed to ask you but I think he’s chickened out.”

“Ruri,” Senkuu hissed at her accusingly.

She beamed and shrugged off his hostility like it was nothing. Gen liked that girl. She was nice but she had some sass too.

“You have such a loving friend, Senkuu-chan!” he laughed.

“Gen, seriously, you don’t have to cancel on yours,” Senkuu rolled his eyes. “Maybe some other week?”

“Oh, no, Senkuu-chan, my friend would love to have a meal with us both~!” Gen smiled mischievously. “We were planning on checking out that neko cafe next to the campus that turned into a ramen place a few weeks ago. But it looks like cats are still living there, isn’t it cool? We used to go there quite often last semester because, you know, cats.”

“Wait, your friend is a cat person? And he would love to have a lunch with both of us?” grim horror appeared on Senkuu’s face. “Are you talking about Xeno?”

“I just adore how smart you are, Senkuu-chan~” Gen beamed and took out his phone to let Xeno know that he wouldn’t be coming alone.

Senkuu groaned loudly and laid his head down on his desk. Gen put down his the device without sending the message after all.

“Senkuu-chan, if you mind Xeno-chan, we can have lunch next week instead. Or I can cancel on him, he won’t make your life a living hell for that, you know. I’m having a dinner with him and Stanley tomorrow, either way.”

“And what do you think, Mentalist?”

“That it’s just a pose and you actually love the man. Am I right?”

“Ten billion percent,” Senkuu admitted with a heavy sigh.

“...But I also feel a hint of disappointment on your side so I’m going to be generous and offer you a lunch with just myself next week!” Gen announced happily.

“Next week we’re having surprise party at the lab for Chrome,” Ruri reminded him.

“Oh, right. Our friend got a study grant for his rocks and we want to congratulate him,” Senkuu explained. “But we have a week after that, and honestly, the whole semester.”

“How optimistic, Senkuu-chan,” Gen giggled. “Well, you shouldn’t get too cocky, I haven’t tried your cola yet.”

“Then go ahead.”

Gen smiled, liking how sure of the cola quality Senkuu sounded. He twisted off the cap. A pleasant sound of air pushing out and rush of bubbles inside was just right. Conscious of Senkuu’s and Ruri’s intense glares, he brought the bottle to his lips and took a sip.

It tasted like a healthy version of cola. Less sweet, more natural and refreshing. He liked it. His taste buds approved fully. Not that he would trade normal cola for it completely but from time to time it would be nice to drink it. Kind of like coffee with oat milk. Strange and tasty but way too peculiar to win against the coffee he was used too.

Still, he knew he would want more. A lot more.

“Senkuu-chan, I fear now you’ll be making this for me for all the special occasions,” he grinned.

“Sure I will, it wasn’t that hard to make it,” Senkuu boasted.

“You’re digging your own grave,” Ruri said, nudging him on the side gently. Senku just rolled his eyes and focused back on Gen.

“So you like it, Mentalist?”

“I do. Ten billion percent,” he added with a smirk, mimicking what seemed to be Senkuu’s catchphrase.

The professor stood up and started the class. She was kind of cute and charismatic so for once Gen decided to pay attention. It was simple, mostly syllabus and official confirmation that aside from activity and reading the texts, the selfie during last class and one’s respect towards real falcons would determine the grade. Then they moved on to some basic facts about falcons so the group could get the general idea about how awesome they were. She also played some video about falcons in their natural habitats all around the world. Well, except for Antarctica, falcons lived everywhere but there.

After the class, Ruri quickly ran off since her next lecture was in the building on the opposite side of the campus. Senkuu and Gen were left alone, with other students slowly dispersing, paying close to none attention to them. They started talking while packing up their things and getting ready to leave and didn’t stop until they’ve reached the ramen place. It wasn’t anything important, mostly they were chatting about falcons and other birds. It felt just like their long talks over texts and Gen didn’t make an effort to conceal his smug even, he was enjoying Senkuu’s wit so much.

That was until they walked into the shop and saw Xeno who was looking even more spectacular than usual. Xeno always cared to dress well but he put a special effort into his outfits at the beginning of each semester and during exams. It didn’t take Gen long to realize that one of his greatest guilty pleasures was scaring the students and thriving on their fear. For that reason, whenever he was going to meet new students or conduct an exam, he always complimented his elegant attire with at least a frock coat or a cape and glows that ended with metal claws. Today he opted for the black frock coat, with a beautifully crafted X-shaped shiny brooch over his heart that reminded of a crest. Strangely enough, the University tolerated his behaviour, odd clothes and ruling over the faculty like it was his dominion. Maybe it was rightfully gained acceptance earned by the numerous academic successes and his general brilliance, or maybe because they overlooked his peculiarities, treating him as the weird foreigner, like some kind of the school’s mascot.

To Gen’s surprise, Xeno didn’t mind going with the flow when it came to the latter. It turned out the role came with quite a few perks like the fact he’d always get away with anything by pretending that ‘he didn’t understand the culture that well yet’ and he got free sweets from his colleagues.

Xeno was sitting at the table in the corner with an open book in front of him, his eyes were quickly running through the lines. One of the familiar cats called Beluga due to her white fur and huge size, was now napping in his laps. Xeno was petting her tenderly with his clawed hand, getting uneasy glares from the rest of the customers.

“Xeno-chan~”

Gen approached him quickly with a smirked, and in just one second he completely destroyed his friend’s meticulously crafted spooky image by crushing him in a hug. The cat ran away and Senkuu stood there petrified, clearly still not over the fact that his professor was a human being after all, and he could have friends, even among students.

“Hi, kitten. Oh. Hello Senkuu,” Xeno noticed the boy, his tone grew a little colder and distant, however, still amused. Gen let him go to let them talk. “What a pleasant surprise.”

“Hello, professor, hope you don’t mind that Gen asked me to come along. Did the claws work on the first years?” Senkuu asked with a smirk.

“They always do,” Xeno smiled sweetly, stretching his fingers. “A few of them jumped up when I called them by their name and one person left for the restroom never to return. I hope at least a few more will drop out of their own volition, the classroom was too crowded.”

Gen took the free seat in front of him. Senku hesitated for a moment but opted for the chair closer to Gen than his mentor. Gen watched them interact carefully. They were both cautious, although did their best to seem casual. Especially Senkuu was a little nervous, his eyes uneasily followed Xeno’s every move. Albeit the professor himself was also a little stiff, Xeno seemed to rather enjoy the situation, even if it was a little unusual for him and not what he’d expected.

“Xeno-chan, next time you should totally let me or Stanley-chan do your makeup!” Gen encouraged him. “We’ll make you look so horrifying that only true, passionate nerds like Senkuu will stay!”

“I’m not letting you or Stanley do my makeup, I want to make them scared, not make them laugh,” Xeno scoffed. “My attire is quite elegant as it is, don’t you agree? What do the students say, Senkuu?”

“Cruel, professor, asking me to betray my own kind,” Senkuu sighed heavily.

Xeno blinked in surprise.

“Shame, I hoped you’d be as easy as Gen when it comes to getting intel. He never hesitates to screenshot and send me students’ comments about me on your groups or tell me about what he’d overhear.”

“That easily?” Senkuu raised his eyebrows. “You traitor.”

“I’m not a traitor, I’m a perfect double agent,” Gen corrected him with a grin. “I’m filtering my intel, you know.”

“Yeah, I was under impression that someone like you would be very conscious about how much he’s sharing,” Senkuu agreed. “You don’t mind it, professor?”

Gen was just smiling innocently as his eyes ran through the menu. Miso ramen looked good. Very good. And edamame. Shame it was a lunch not dinner, he would love to order some beer to go with it. Well, cola would go perfectly too, actually. And this way he could save Senkuu’s cola for later.

“Oh, not in the slightest. Gen is an excellent liar, he always makes a performance that is just fabulous to observe. He even cheated the simple polygraph I made when I wanted to find out who was stealing my pudding from my fridge. He got through the test but then Stanley set up a trap and we caught him red-handed,” Xeno said. “But he’s our cat so we forgave him. It doesn’t matter if he throws in a lie here and there, we love him and his crazy stories either way.”

Gen knew that showing this side of him in front of Senkuu that early into their relationship was not an entirely good idea but he also knew that Xeno would never shut up even if he was told to. It wasn’t even the matter that he knew absolutely no boundaries, he was pretty aware of them actually. It was just that he didn’t care and nothing could stop him.

“Actually, professor, I’m kind of curious… how did you and your boyfriend come to the conclusion that a neighbour ten years your junior is your cat?” Senkuu asked casually, looking Xeno straight in the eyes.

Gen gasped quietly, amazed by how Senkuu has destroyed Xeno in so many ways with just one sentence. Also, he watched carefully as a new layer of Stanley and Xeno’s boyfriend-childhood friend game of pretending was crafting right before his eyes.

Fortunately, a waitress came by asking them if they had decided on food. She glared at Xeno, his pale skin, blond hair and his claws with wariness but not as grave as Gen expected from her. She must have been an experienced waitress, who had many encounters with strange foreigners.

Gen changed his mind when she jumped up when Xeno switched to impeccable Japanese and asked her what kind of broth they used in the dish called ‘Naruto ramen’. She must have just been doing her best to keep a straight face up till then but suddenly her facade was crumbling. Xeno listened to her stuttered answer but in the end he decided to go for basic tonkotsu. He also asked for an additional napkin since, as he has put it, ‘he valued the elegance of his attire’. The girl was already extremely creeped out when she moved on to Gen and looked like she wanted to run away so he took pity on her and ordered just a cola and his miso ramen. Senkuu, not unlike Xeno, paid close attention to the otaku page of the menu, and he didn’t hesitate for a moment before asking for ‘Doraeramon’. Whatever it was.

When she left, Xeno sat up straight, pointing his clawed finger at Senkuu.

“First of all, I’m forever young spiritually and I do not have any other age than that because my mind is strong enough to make the body succumb to it for an eternity. If not just by sheer will, then by science,” he announced. “And Stanley doesn’t have age either because beauty has no age.”

“Sure, whatever you say,” Senkuu mockingly agreed.

“Secondly, Stan and I are not involved. Right, Gen?”

“Hm…” Gen rested his chin on his palm and pretended to be pondering. “They got engaged when they were kids… And it sounds like Stanley’s first crush was definitely Xeno-chan… And I sense that they might have made out a few times in high school or in college… But I say no, they are friends,” he ended with a smile. “Very close friends. The kind that reads each other's diaries.”

“We do not,” Xeno scoffed but clearly appreciated the support.

“Yeah, I’m not sure I’m buying that,” Senkuu continued, scratching his head. “I mean… two man, deciding to be forever young together… kinda sketchy.”

“Funny coming from a boy who’s father joined our forever young project after you called him old a few weeks back,” Xeno crossed his arms on his chest.

Clearly he was getting a little passive-aggressive and Gen needed to stop him before he went off the rails. And also because he was curious about why Xeno knew Senkuu’s dad. Senkuu didn’t look bothered by the mention so there seemed to be little harm in asking.

“Aww, you know Senkuu’s dad, Xeno-chan?” he gasped. “Wow. Senkuu, I’m fearing Xeno-chan is taking over your entire life.”

“Yeah, honestly, I often feel this way too,” Senkuu admitted. “And by the way, I still haven’t forgotten you for those texts, Gen. You’ve ruined my life and my innocence.”

“What texts?” Xeno asked.

“Just told him about our last My Chemical Romance karaoke,” Gen smoothly lied.

“How can a MCR karaoke ruin one’s life?” Xeno looked ready to kill. Gen shivered involuntarily.

“I’m still waiting to find out about how Gen became yours and your forever young best friend’s cat,” Senkuu reminded him.

“Wait, first, I want to know the dad thing,” Gen asked, feeling that soon this piece of information could become crucial.

Like for an example, in a completely hypothetical situation where he’d end up dating Senkuu, suddenly one of his closest friends could be off-limits due to his proximity to his potential father-in-law. Not that it mattered. Senkuu’s dad would probably like him either way, he knew how to make most people like him.

Except for all kinds of parents since he never got along with his own and actually that was the real reason he needed to know about Xeno and Senkuu’s dad as soon as possible.

“Remember how I told you that there are two groups for the courses I teach? And I get the smart ones, Byakuya gets the rest? He’s Senkuu’s father. Quite nice, warm human being, I must admit,” Xeno said, surprising Gen a bit. It was rather rare to see him compliment not someone’s skills or their wits but their good character. “We have a habit of getting a morning coffee together before the class at least once a week. He may not be elegant but he’s a rather pleasant company. And he tells me embarrassing things about Senkuu’s childhood all the time, it’s fun to listen.”

“Oh no,” Senku groaned and concealed his face behind his palm.

Gen chuckled, finding it terribly adorable. Also, the fact that even Xeno liked Senkuu’s dad calmed him down.

“That’s kind of cute, Senkuu-chan,” Gen announced. “I’ll spare you humiliation and won’t ask Xeno-chan for details this time.”

“How surprisingly considerate of you, Mentalist,” Senkuu put his hand down and looked at Gen. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Gen smiled softly and for a moment he froze, simply gazing back at Senkuu in a silent alliance. Then, his eyes drifted away to see Xeno snapping a picture of the two of them. “Xeno-chan, I feel violated. Should I remind you that you’re a professor and shouldn’t take pictures of students, especially those who aren’t yours?”

“Please, Gen, I have so many embarrassing pictures of you in my phone already…” Xeno huffed. “I’m just keeping Stanley up to date. Speaking of… Do you have some time next week?”

“Sure, Xeno-chan. What’s up?” he asked merrily.

“Nothing really. Stanley has an early flight on Sunday. He’ll be gone two weeks or so, he doesn’t exactly know. So we can make progress with our ‘no-Stan’ to watch list”

The smile faded away from Gen’s face. Xeno’s expression didn’t give anything away but his fingers were tapping on the table, showing his nervousness. Gen knew that it probably meant that Stan was leaving for work and as much as Xeno had absolute faith in Stanley’s skills, there was always some anxiety that something bad could happen. Also, there was the thing that Stan could barely text or call when he was gone, sometimes not at all, and it drove Xeno absolutely crazy since he hated not knowing something.

To be honest, Gen had no idea what exactly Stan’s job was but the combat knives around the apartment, a glimpse of a badge that he’s once caught, and the fact that he met Ukyou through work was enough to keep Gen from asking unnecessary questions especially since Stanley wasn’t willing to tell him on his own.

“Don’t worry, Xeno-chan, we’ll have an awesome party without him! And I think you should invite Senkuu over to do your sciency things next weekend! Or actually,” Gen gasped. “Let’s have DnD one-shot session this Saturday before Stan leaves. Please.”

“You’re into Dungeons and Dragons?” Senkuu looked at Gen in surprise.

The waitress was back, she quickly put their ramen on the table, avoiding Xeno’s glare. She wished them a pleasant meal and promptly marched away.

“Senkuu-chan~ I’ve been polluted by this man,” Gen accusingly pointed to Xeno who was completely absorbed by trying to figure out an optimal way to hold chopsticks without interfering with his claws. “I have been a normal person who never played DnD… And then… I met him… And now he’s my Dungeon Master and I can’t get out.”

“Can I come?” Senkuu didn’t wait around before asking. He seemed determined. A DnD fan perhaps?

“Suddenly so kin on getting to know me on a personal level, Senkuu?” Xeno mocked, still focused on finding a perfect way to hold chopsticks. He was slowly getting closer. “Just so you know, I won’t condone any inappropriate behaviour toward my cat in my dungeon.”

“Saturday’s good? I’ll ask Ukyou,” Gen said, reaching for his phone. “Five people sounds like a good team maybe we could invite one or two people more… Maybe Stan’s friends, Xeno-chan? Or I can text mine... But we don’t have much time so we all should plan our characters beforehand... You know how to play, right, Senkuu-chan?”

“I know the basics, we played once with my friends…” Senkuu scratched his head. “But to be honest it sucked since I ended up being DM and none of us really understood the game.”

“What a tragedy,” Xeno muttered, paying little attention. He finally got a good grasp on the art of manipulating chopsticks with claws still on. He held them firmly with a satisfied smirk and started on his ramen.

“Don’t worry, Senkuu-chan! Xeno is a brilliant DM, his games are so immersive...” Gen smiled and finished his text to Ukyou. “One time we kept playing the whole weekend without even taking breaks to eat, we were just eating while still playing. And he’s always prepared, the plot can get so crazy... You have some one-shot good for this weekend in your magical notes, Xeno-chan?”

Xeno put down his chopsticks, thoroughly wiped his fingers and claws and then reached into his bag to pull out his thick black notebook. He ran through the pages quickly and then nodded in affirmation.

“Yes, we’re good.”

“Professor,” Senkuu let out an exasperated sigh. “I recognize this notebook. During the final exam, the one that over half of the group failed, the one that made two people drop out before even seeing a score… Did you really spent it writing a DnD plot when we were going through one of the worst torments of our students' lives?”

“That was torment?” Xeno raised his eyebrow. “You haven’t seen what I’m preparing for your group this year. But yes, I did write a pretty good campaign plan back then. Gen, do you remember the underwater rabbits?”

“OMG, that was so good Senkuu-chan, and totally worth student suffering if it inspired Xeno-chan,” Gen gasped. “There was a plague in the kingdom, and we needed to trade with the racoons but they joined us because they were selling scented toilet paper to the dwarfs... and the trees were actually the villains, lurking everywhere and ready to kill! We were all worshipping underwater rabbits.”

“How does one come from torturing students to underwater rabbits?” Senkuu didn’t sound convinced.

“Well, Senkuu, why does the Sun shine?” Xeno asked seriously. He put his notebook away and picked up his chopsticks. He scowled, disappointed that he was not able to adjust them properly right away.

Senkuu opened his mouth to answer but Gen was faster.

“Xeno-chan, even I know it’s because of nuclear fusion when hydrogen atoms combine into helium,” Gen rolled his eyes as it was the most obvious thing in the universe.

Just as he hoped he got a pleasantly surprised glare from Senkuu. His lips twitched in a smirk.

“Yes, but why there is a nuclear fusion in the first place?” Xeno continued to ask.

“Because even though hydrogen protons are pushing each other away, according to quantum mechanics there is a possibility of them fusing and when they do, they release energy,” Senkuu explained.

“Exactly,” Xeno was satisfied. “And that’s also why my work of tormenting students and free time hobby suddenly connected and made me burst with creative energy. Well, that and the boy in the first row had a really charming pencil case with bunny ears.”

“Funny you still consider it work when you enjoy it so much, Xeno-chan,” Gen let out an awkward chuckle.

“It’s important to find joy in work, kitten, I hope you’ll grow up doing earning money for something you like too. Just please, don’t become con artist, it will be awkward for Ukyou to bail you out from prison.”

“Oh, please. I would never get caught,” Gen smirked. “Stanley taught me how to cover my tracks.”

“Spy work is also off-limits, too dangerous,” Xeno strictly forbade. “You’re our cat, we get a say in that.”

“So, will you finally tell me why he’s your cat?” Senkuu reminded them.

“Do you think I would look cute in cat ears, Senkuu-chan?” Gen tried to distract him again. “That’s how I stole Xeno-chan’s heart.”

Senkuu looked at Xeno, carefully watching his reaction before answering Gen. Xeno gave off nothing, calmly slurping on his ramen.

“You can’t fool me, Mentalist. Xeno’s way too calm for this to be true.”

“Actually, Gen wore cat ears at some point and he did look cute in them,” Xeno spoke up. “But that’s not the reason we adopted him, as you correctly deducted. The real reason has its roots in something Gen is a little bit embarrassed about it so that’s why he’s been bravely avoiding the subject.”

“Respect me, Senkuu-chan, don’t ask,” Gen asked sweetly, gently caressing the other boy’s forearm to raise his chances of success. Also because for a nerd, Senkuu had rather attractive arms.

Touching Senkuu’s pulse made him realize that he should make him should make his own slow down.

“Do you really attempt to flirt your way out of this one?” Senkuu glared at him, and then for a second his darted eyes at Xeno. There was no disdain on Xeno’s face, much to Senkuu’s relief.

“That would be a little low for me,” Gen giggled moving a little closer. “But if I was, is it working?”

“Well, you are kind of humiliating me in front of my teacher now so it depends. If I give up, will you send me a photo of you in cat ears?” the other boy demanded with a sly smile.

Gen’s heart skipped a bit but he didn’t let it show.

“Senkuu-chan, we’re not in that kind of relationship yet!” he gasped, raising his hands to his cheeks in horror.

“Okay, sure, I respect that,” Senkuu chuckled. “Go ahead, professor.”

“Xeno-chan!” Gen hissed threateningly.

“Gen is the most chaotic cook in the existence,” Xeno announced seriously. “He cuts tomatoes in ten different ways at the same time, he doesn’t follow the recipe in the slightest, his dishes are all ‘improvised’ and you can never know if what he’s making will turn out to be edible or not. The probability shows that he has higher chances of screwing up than of succeeding.”

“That’s mean, Xeno-chan, you loved my chocolate cake!”

“Yes, I did. Shame we can never taste it again. Because it was an accident like everything you make. Gen in the kitchen is like watching the chaos theory play out in microcosm where the casualties are multiplied.”

“Xeno-chan is exaggerating, Senkuu-chan,” Gen scoffed. “He’s just mad because he won’t be getting any more cake.”

“In consequence,” Xeno didn’t let himself be disturbed. “Gen doesn’t always have food for himself. Stanley on the other hand, always prepares a lot of delicious food, often for a few days at the time.”

“Let’s talk about this! Senkuu-chan, Stanley-chan told me he actually does that because he thinks without him Xeno-chan would forget about meals or just eat anything so he needs to cook for him and that’s the real reason why they live together. Don’t you think it’s more tragic than my chaotic cooking?”

“I kinda get it, professor, happens to me all the time,” Senkuu scratched the back of his head. “But it’s not good for the body or mind so I added a reminder in the phone to eat a healthy meal at least twice a week. So what does it all have to do with the cat thing?”

“Two years ago, Stanley found Gen in the convenience store buying some frozen okonomiyaki, we’ve already seen him around since Stan knew Gen’s roommate… He took pity on the boy and invited him over for dinner. We fed Gen once,” Xeno said seriously, accusingly pointing at his neighbour. “Then he came by and casually mentioned that he was hungry so we fed him again. He kept coming over, and before we realized what was going on, he was already at our place three times a week at least. Like a stray cat who found a good food supplier. But we took a liking to him and Stanley even started buying Gen’s favorite pudding so Gen would be happy. And then, one day, Ukyou left for two-week-long training on Okinawa and Gen forgot his keys. He knocked on our apartment door, looked at us with those huge puppy eyes and asked if we could take him in. He looked so adorable in Stan’s baggy clothes, stealing milk from our fridge. During his stay, we invited him for a DnD game, he played as a tabaxi and it all clicked. Gen has been our cat ever since. And we’re not giving him away. Never,” he glared at Senkuu. “Ever,” he added to make things even more clear.

Gen was happy Xeno spared them some details of his impromptu invasion on the apartment right above his own, like the fact that Stanley was so amused by the idea of Gen playing as tabaxi that he drew whiskers on his face with eyeliner. To Gen’s relief, there was no discouragement or contempt in Senkuu’s eyes. He looked strangely captivated.

“To be honest, I see your point. I can totally see Gen as a cat disguised as a human,” Senkuu agreed with a smirk.

Gen rolled his eyes. He’s already finished eating so he picked up one of the cats from the floor and started petting it. The cat purred happily.

“See?” Xeno insisted. “They look like brothers.”

Senkuu’s mind seemed to have drifted off for a moment because it took him a moment to answer.

“...Yeah,” he said with a soft smile on his face. “Totally brothers.”

The cat licked Gen’s cheek.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you may guess, the next chapter is... Dungeons and Dragons!  
> Tbh I did play DnD but I do not by any means consider myself experienced ^^" But fortunately, I have a good friend who's really into DnD (really, he plays all the time, even is DM in one of the games). I'm asking him a ton of questions when writing and he's going to check the DnD part of the next chapter so don't worry about the quality and please be patient ヾ(･ω･｡)ｼ


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi~   
> I decided to come back to uni for my masters so I'm officially a student again <3 Unfortunately, I didn't quit my job so sorry for writing a little slowly >.< Well, slowly but actually I'm working on chapter 7 already. There will be 10 at least in total, by the way. 
> 
> Actually, the chapter about the DnD turned out to be quite a monstrocity so I divided it in three parts. It wasn't the plan when I was first writing it so sorry if this chapter will end a little abruptly, the rest is already written so I'll upload it soon (*⌒▽⌒*)θ～♪ 
> 
> Anyway, enjoy morning Xeno and everything else ೭੧(❛▿❛✿)੭೨
> 
> Small note for everyone not into DnD: Tabaxi are a race of feline humanoids. So cat-people. Also, if you don't want to read the DnD part, let me know in the comment, I'll add a bief summary in the end notes so you don't have to.  
> Actually none of those chapters is only about DnD so I hope you'll still have fun reading it (ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

“I don’t think I’ve seen you up this early on the weekend since… mid-December of last year,” Ukyou cocked his head, suspicion written all over his face.

Gen took another sip of his coffee and sighed heavily since the mug was almost empty. He glanced at the clock, it was a quarter past nine in the morning but on Saturday. Yesterday, meeting Senkuu to create their characters together and bond before the DnD session seemed like a brilliant scheme but now he wasn’t so sure anymore. The couch was soft, he could still take a nap, even if just for a couple of minutes. The wax inside the lava lamp in the corner of the living room was moving up and down slowly, enticing Gen with its tranquillity. He let out a long yawn.

“I might have made a mistake, Ukyou-chan. I live among the creatures of the night, I haven’t got the will to try and fight. I just want to sleep.”

“I’m sure Senkuu would appreciate your Laura Branigan’s cover, my cute city light painted girl,” Ukyou smiled. “Don’t fall asleep, he’s going to be here in a few minutes.”

“The reality is so cruel. Make me a coffee, please, Ukyou-chan, my sweet saviour…”

Ukyou’s eyes dropped at the table, where an empty mug was left discarded. Gen sighed with resignation. There was so way around someone as perceptive as his friend.

“Just make another one for yourself when you make something to drink for Senkuu,” Ukyou suggested. “Or you can always exaggerate your chaotic kitchen abilities to the point where he will make one for you just to keep you away from boiling water.”

“He’s too smart to get fooled that easily,” Gen sighed, resting his cheek against his palm.

“Are you the man who fooled Xeno and his polygraph or just a joke?” Ukyou gently patted his friend on the head.

Gen’s lips twitched in a smile.

“Speaking of Xeno-chan, are they up already?”

“Depends what you consider as ‘up’,” Ukyou grimly looked up at the ceiling. “I would say they are down.”

“I don’t hear anything,” Gen glared up.

“Stanley brought Xeno breakfast to bed. How come you never bring me breakfast?” the other boy pouted.

“Because as much as I love you I’m not attempting to get in your bed, unlike Stanley-chan is doing with Xeno-chan.”

“You realize it’s his bed too, right? Huh,” Ukyou cocked his head. “Stanley is trying to convince Xeno to join him for yoga. Looks like Xeno will get the breakfast only after.”

“I bet you a box of ice cream that Stan won’t succeed and Xeno will get his breakfast anyway.”

“No, I’m not betting against obvious,” Ukyou declined. “But if you really want ice cream, I’m going shopping before DnD, I can buy you some,” he added.

Gen’s sleepy eyes suddenly brightened, looking with love at his friend.

“I love you so, so much, Ukyou-chan.”

“Practising for your future boyfriend?” Ukyou mocked him.

“We’ll see,” Gen smirked. “For now, more like practising for my possible DnD persona.”

“Hmmm, if you say so,” Ukyou smiled softly and walked off to the kitchen, probably to make himself some breakfast.

Gen involuntarily closed his eyes. As through the mist perceived some loud thud and Xeno’s laughter upstairs, maybe followed by a moan, or maybe he was just imagining it, slowly dozing off. Ukyou turned on the radio so instead of the muffled noises from above, tranquil indie rock filled the air. Gen almost fell asleep again but a sudden knock on the door made him snap out of it.

He promptly stood up, yawned, stretched his back, and quickly marched to the door, putting on his best smile.

As expected, Senkuu was waiting on the other side. His greenish hair looked truly majestic so early in the morning.

“Morning, Senkuu-chan!~”

“Hi, Mentalist,” the other boy welcomed him with an impish grin. “So why did you tell me to come this early? Concocting some mind game for later and need my help?”

Gen moved aside letting Senkuu in.

“Seems like you get me pretty well, Senkuu-chan,” Gen giggled. “I would offer you a coffee but my flatmate has been pretty upset about my presence in the kitchen recently and kind of banned me from touching kettle or pots yesterday. Unfortunately.”

“You are totally trying to trick me into making your coffee, aren’t you? No way, someone like you would definitely use it against me, I would be your coffee slave till the day I die. Cool lava lamp, by the way.”

For a few seconds, Senkuu’s confidence made Gen speechless but then, an honest, happy smile appeared on his face. Some strange warmth grew inside Gen, right where his heart was.

The feeling grew even stronger when Senkuu took off his shoes revealing green socks with adorable shibas eating ramen all over them. Gen always thought that a human being should either walk barefooted or invest in some fine, adorable socks. Not that the rest of Senkuu’s outfit was bad, he wasn’t surprised in the slightest by the witty science T-shirt with angry A-Mean-Oh acid looking like a bully on the front print.

“Fine, Senkuu-chan, you win. I’ll make you a coffee.”

He grabbed the other boy’s wrist and pulled him to the kitchen where Ukyou was sipping on his tea as he observed the sandwich maker like a hawk watches his prey. Judging from the smell, his breakfast was almost done.

“That’s my flatmate and BFF, Ukyou-chan. Ukyou-chan, don’t worry, it’s not a leek that came to life because of Xeno-chan’s crazy experiments, it’s a real human being with a soul and his name is Senkuu,” Gen introduced them to each other.

“Funny you and Xeno failed to mention the hair,” Ukyou cocked his head in amusement.

“Indeed very funny,” Senkuu let out an exasperated groan. “You have no idea how hard it is to take care of hair like that.”

“Is it soft? Can I touch it?” Gen asked adding a tad bit of teasing to his tone. “I’m kind of imagining it’s going to be a lot like grass.”

“My hair is nothing like grass,” Senkuu rolled his eyes. “Go ahead and check.”

Gen didn’t have to be asked twice. He stretched out his hand and ran his fingers through Senkuu’s hair gasping in surprise. Senkuu had the right to be boasting about his hair care. The confident smirk on his face was also very suitable.

“How is it?” Ukyou asked, beaming with curiosity.

“Thick, strong, and well moisturized,” Gen announced seriously, retreating his palm. He turned to the coffee machine and turned it on. “So, Senkuu-chan, you are probably wondering why I’ve asked you to come here this early. But first, how do you like your coffee? Black like the last time?”

“Yeah. How about you, Mentalist?”

“I prefer a latte,” Gen smiled.

“If you can still call it a latte with three shots of espresso,” Ukyou mocked him without mercy like real friends tend to do sometime.

“Technically, it’s still a latte,” Gen smiled.

There was no disdain on Senkuu’s face, just understanding. Gen smirked and made the other boy’s coffee slightly stronger since he had a feeling he would probably appreciate that. Senkuu’s eyes were looking around the kitchen as if doing exactly what Gen usually was when at someone’s place – trying to figure out as much about the owners as he could. Of course, they lingered on the fridge, starting at the door of the fridge in shock. Gen wasn’t surprised in the slightest, it was a beautiful exhibit of anime magnets and memes he and Ukyou put a lot of work into and rearranged every month.

“That’s an impressive magnet collection,” Senku admitted.

“Please,” Ukyou snorted. “That’s not even touching the surface of how impressive our magnet collection actually is. We have a couple more boxes in the closet.”

Gen offered a black coffee in a unicorn mug to Senkuu. He got a suspicious glare in return but also a quiet thanks right after. He proceeded to make his own coffee, adding as much espresso into his latte as he physically could fit without spilling it. Ukyou’s sandwiches were about to get burnt so it was high time to move onto the real reason why he invited the boy over before the meeting.

“Senkuu-chan, I summoned you here this morning to discuss strategy for the game. Ukyou-chan, do you want to join our backstory?”

“Nah, I have mine,” Ukyou said, taking his breakfast out from the machine and turning it off. “I’ll be a halfling rogue thief who had a difficult life and it made him strong but grumpy. Watch your purses,” he winked and left for his room.

“Do you always prepare characters and everything beforehand?” Senkuu asked.

“Usually,” Gen replied. “It takes a lot of time if you try to do that in a group. Usually, we try to go to Xeno for stat rolls earlier too. Since you are kind of new I thought it would be fun to help you and also make it so our characters have a common backstory.”

“Do you have something specific in mind?”

Gen’s plan clearly picked up his interest, there was some glimmer in his eyes that he knew far too well from his own. As if he was concocting some evil scheme. Not that Gen did that too often. Maybe only once a week.

But what Senkuu didn’t know yet but probably was somewhat aware of, was that Gen would never miss this chance to explore his relationship with Senkuu in a completely different light.

They moved to the living room and sat down on the couch. Gen moved his old, empty mug aside, pretending it has no connection to the coffee he was drinking now.

“So first, let’s introduce our characters and we can come up with something together. I was planning on playing as a cunning bard. But I know that another guy wants to be a bard too and he kind of called dibs so if Xeno-chan says two bards are no-go, I guess I can always be a wizard who likes performing. Either way, direct combat is not my thing neither in reality nor in the game,” he added. “And don’t laugh but I want to be a tabaxi, raised by his elf grandfather, or so he claims. It always seemed a little shady to my character, he suspects it’s just a random guy who’s been in love with his grandma. And I don’t blame him, she was a hot black dancer in her days, very flexible. My character takes after her, although he almost doesn’t remember her. And his fur is grey, with black stripes.”

Senkuu snorted but without any malice. Gen was pretty sure that the other boy found the cat joke rather cute at any given time, the softness in Senkuu’s dark eyes was only supporting this theory.

Gen didn’t plan to admit it openly but he wanted to throw in a lot of his own personality quirks into characterization this time, mostly to have more fun interacting with Senkuu. The design seemed to be working so far, he liked the reaction he was getting.

“I heard that all the bards are flirty playboys, are you planning on going this way too, Mentalist?” Senkuu sneered.

“Hm… That depends. On your character, of course. Since we’re going to have a common backstory,” Gen added innocently.

“Ha, we’ll see. It wouldn’t be so bad if we could put your flirting skills to use, anyway. Well, assuming there will be any willing furries out there,” the other boy mocked.

“Excuse you, Senkuu-chan,” Gen pretended to be outraged. “My tabaxi’s name is Hot as Fire and it describes him very well. He’s so charming and wonderful anyone would love to have their way with him,” he smiled mischievously while adding sweetness to tone, consciously making the offer slightly disturbing. “It’s up to you whether he wants to have fun with them or not. So... Hot as Fire lived in the city with his grandpa all his life and he had to learn how to outsmart other people. So he became a con artist at first but kinda got in trouble when he sold a flower to a warlock who wanted to impress his ogre girlfriend but well, the plant tried to eat her for some reason. So Fire and his grandpa packed their things and moved to another kingdom where Fire started to make a living by doing covers of some popular songs by other bards but actually kind of enjoyed it so, eventually, he wrote a few songs himself, he added some card tricks, and then he had his own show.”

“So why Fire is on an adventure now?” Senkuu asked.

“Circumstances, not sure about that part yet. Maybe an accident, maybe someone hot,” he shrugged, pretending that it wasn’t decided from the start.

“How about a mysterious tiefling sorcerer with an ominous past, bunch of mysterious books on his shelves, kind of pragmatical and cold but also a tad bit chaotic who always points out grammar mistakes in Fire’s songs or some historical discrepancies but always leaves a generous tip?”

“Oh, sound like a bad boy with some nerdish vibes and soft spot inside, Hot as Fire would totally be into that. But where does your character get all that money from?”

“You want him to be mysterious or not?” Senkuu smirked. “But… I guess I can tell you that he’s terrified of lizards, wears colourful underwear under his black robe, and is very passionate about rocks. He even has a small collection in his attic. It used to be much bigger, before the accident that happened around, let’s say, a year ago. There was an earthquake, some crazy elf warlock tried to make a flying castle and dug too deep when he was looking for resources. No one knows what exactly happened down there but half of the city collapsed and the rock collection got buried under the rumble. Kathos, my character, cried for a week.”

“What a cute nerd,” Gen chuckled. “But to be honest I like the warlock too. Ukyou-chan!” he raised his voice. “Maybe not a rogue this time but the crazy elf warlock who destroyed the city by accident?”

“So your characters can spend the whole game hating on me? No thank you!” Ukyou yelled back.

Gen just shrugged.

“Well, I suppose we could spice our backstory up with a little tragedy. What if all the people in the city hated on the elf warlock so much after the earthquake that he eventually couldn’t take it anymore and turned everyone into stone? Kind of ironic since Kathos lost his rocks. I mean, his rock collection. But I don’t know why Kathos and Fire had survived. Well, the warlock could be Fire’s fan but that’s anticlimactic.”

“They could get saved by Kathos’s spell, I don’t know, for example, he cast a minor illusion to create an image of them being turned into stone when the real ones hid under the table. The elf was busy turning everyone into stone and didn’t notice. Then he left, finished his castle, and now is flying in it all around the country. We are trying to figure out a way to either find a mage powerful enough to de-stone everyone or gather up a team to kill the elf because maybe that will help.”

“Oh no, wait, Fire’s grandpa is stone now? Fire is pretending he’s taking it well but he really isn’t, you know,” Gen let out a tragic sigh. “They were really close.”

“You were the one who came up with the stoning plot,” Senkuu pointed out. “Kathos knows that Fire’s worried. He wants to save everyone, of course, even his asshole racist next-door neighbour, but Hot as Fire’s grandpa is the top priority. Although he’s kind of scared that maybe the old elf won’t like him.”

“Oh, the old man is going to despise him,” Gen giggled. “He’s got a thing against sorcerers. Fire, on the other hand, can’t wait until they can throw some rocks in the elf warlock’s face together.”

“Gen,” Ukyou shyly poked his head out from his room. “I kindly remind you that Xeno doesn’t allow DnD characters to date unless it’s something established via game and rolls.”

“But we’re not dating, Ukyou-chan!” Gen smiled sweetly. “We’re just plotting how to take down an evil elf! Not my fault Senkuu’s character has a crush on mine!”

“Pfff,” Senkuu scowled. “Fine, if you want to stop over poor Kathos’ heart, go ahead, have fun. But the guy is going to get pissed eventually.”

“Oh my god, Senkuu-chan, that’s brilliant! Let’s have a drama! An edgy bromance with a little malice!” Gen let out an exhilarated gasp.

“What?” the other boy deadpanned.

“Trust me, it will be so fun,” Gen smirked mischievously. “Ukyou-chan you coming with us upstairs? I think we’re ready to get stat rolls.”

“Sure. Let me just fetch my bag, I’ll go shopping after. Do you want anything aside from ice cream and cola?”

“Your shopping list is perfect, Ukyou-chan,” the other boy disappeared into his room again. “ So Senkuu-chan,” Gen turned to his guest again, “there’s one more thing I need to talk to you about before we go upstairs. Remember the little game I have with Stan and Xeno? The one that is all about pretending that we all don’t know that they are dating when in reality it’s quite obvious? Yeah, we’re not doing it today. Just pretend you see nothing.”

“Sure,” Senkuu agreed, suspicion sounding heavily in his voice. “But why?”

“Because Stanley-chan is extremely clingy whenever he’s about to leave Xeno for longer than a day and if we point out how they act, Xeno-chan gets bashful and pushes him away. So Stanley-chan acted like a mature adult and threatened us all.”

“And Xeno is okay with that?” Senkuu raised his eyebrows, clearly still not convinced.

“Of course not. But you know Xeno-chan, he’s levitating in his own reality and accepting a lot of odd things happening around him since he is still the oddest of them all,” Gen waved his hand dismissively. “And he loves Stan a lot so deep down he’s actually happy about all the affection.”

“Gen,” Ukyou emerged from his room, wielding his shopping bag in one hand and phone in the other. “Stop fawning over them and let’s go.”

Both boys quickly took a few more sips of their remaining drinks and followed Ukyou to the door. On the way, Gen grabbed his own DnD notebook from the shelf. As chaotic as he seemed, he liked to have his schemes and plots well planned and organized. Not that he always followed the initial plan, he didn’t refrain from improvising whenever the situation called for it but still, he preferred to be well-prepared. And also he liked to keep all his character sheets and notes about them in one place.

They quickly put on their shoes and left the flat. As they climbed up the stairs, Senkuu tossed a glare at the still broken lamp, like he’s completely forgotten that it was there in the first place.

“Oi, Mentalist, why the lamp is still broken? Shouldn’t building management do something?”

“Well, you know how they work, they told us that the renovation and reparation fund has already been used up so maybe the next year,” Gen shrugged.

“Huh. It was kind of my fault, I can fix it for you,” Senkuu offered casually.

Gen and Ukyou both gasped in shock.

“That would be great, thank you, Senkuu-chan,” Gen gave him a soft, warm smile that was much more sincere than his usual ones. Ukyou noticed, of course, but didn’t mention it.

“Yeah, great that we finally have a scientist who can actually fix things and not just make jewellery and tell weird anecdotes,” Ukyou agreed.

He knocked on the door and waited. Gen noticed that it had been oddly quiet on the other side, usually one could hear Stan and Xeno’s muffled voices through the door or at least some music playing.

For a moment, he wondered if maybe they decided to sleep in after all but eventually, the door opened, revealing Stanley in dark yoga pants and a fitting tank top. Gen unintentionally breathed in a little too much oxygen at once when he saw his neighbour, not able to deal with the perfection that was Stanley’s body that early in the morning.

“Sorry for the wait, I was in the middle of my yoga.”

Ukyou stepped in, taking over the conversation since Gen was still speechless and Senkuu was too confused either by seeing Stanley for what probably was the second time in his life or by Gen’s reaction.

“Hate to disturb you but is Xeno here? We came for stat rolls.”

“He’s still sleeping but I can wake him up for you. You can wait in the living room.”

Stanley moved aside and without any further courtesies, sauntered off in the direction of the bedroom. Gen’s eyes followed him until he got nudged painfully by Ukyou’s elbow right between his ribs.

“Stop shamelessly ogling him. It’s embarrassing,” Ukyou demanded with a sour expression.

“He’s too attractive not to look,” Gen shrugged it off. “I mean, yoga pants. That body.”

Suddenly Gen realized that he might have made a huge mistake. Gawking at Stanley’s abs definitely wasn’t something that he should have done when trying to get closer to Senkuu. He tossed a glance to the side, trying to guess what the latter thought about it from his expression but it turned out to be surprisingly indifferent.

Only then Gen realized that he would prefer to see at least some jealousy.

He lowered his head down when he was taking off his shoes, conscious that the bangs conceived the fact he anxiously bit his lip, trying to find words that would be best to say right now. He couldn’t decide what he actually wanted to achieve and how would it be possible against someone like Senkuu.

“I’m just admiring the objective beauty that is Stanley-chan,” he continued lightly as they walked to the living room. “Looking at Stan is like looking at a pretty picture. It has nothing to do with my actual taste in man.”

“Just admit that you’re shallow, Mentalist,” Senkuu attempted a joke but Gen could hear that it was just a distraction. Senkuu was too occupied with looking around the room. He couldn’t really be blamed, Stan and Xeno’s steampunk apartment decor was impressive.

“Fine, you have me,” he gasped tragically. “I’m the shallowest man in the world.”

They say down on the couch, dangerously close to Stanley’s yoga mat just in time to see Stanley emerge from the bedroom with a smug on his face. He grabbed his mat and moved it closer to the window. He resumed his practice, caring little about the unexpected audience, moving right to more advanced poses, and eventually the king pigeon.

Usually, Gen would probably watch without holding back but this time around, his eyes were drilling into Senkuu’s trying to figure the other boy out. Senkuu didn’t seem shaken by the intense staring, Gen wasn’t even sure if he noticed it, completely enchanted by the whiteboard next to Stanley, covered in some mysterious equations that told Gen close to nothing.

“Oh look, Gen, it’s the king pigeon pose!” Ukyou smiled. “Remember when we were playing charades and you guessed ‘bread’ when Stanley did it? We won.”

Senkuu actually stood up to take a closer look at the board.

“Is this Shroddinger Hamiltonian? That’s so cool,” Senkuu grinned as his eyes followed the lines.

“Yeah, string theory is Xeno’s little weekend hobby,” Stanley provided proceeding to curve his back in a very unnatural way. “He used to be really into quantum mechanics when he was a teenager, the theory was so elegant,” he ridiculed.

It was only then that Senkuu noticed the king pigeon that Stanley was still holding up perfectly. 

“This position seems awfully advanced,” Senkuu commented. “How long does it take until someone can bend this way?” he glared suspiciously at Stanley’s effortless switch to balasana and a moment later to bharadvajasana.

“You specifically? Years,” Stanley calmly answered not letting the talking interfere with his breathing pattern too much. “You look like someone who would be just as bad at yoga and any physical activity as Xeno is.”

“Excuse you, I can perform around 30 yoga poses excellently,” they heard Xeno scoff and turned to see the man himself leaning against the bedroom door frame.

Senkuu’s eyes opened wide in shock, much to Gen’s amusement. It must have been the first time the boy saw his favourite professor before his morning bathroom routine and Gen couldn’t deny that the difference between Xeno before and after was tremendous, especially today.

What always surprised Gen the most was the hair. Xeno’s adorable wavy bangs covered his forehead and the longer ones reached down to his jaw, adding certain softness to his facial features and all in all making him look like a nerdish high school student. He was wearing a long black silk dressing gown that was reaching his ankles. The wide sleeves were fitting of a true drama queen. In Gen’s honest opinion, Xeno was looking a little bit out of it at the moment, his eyes were a little hazy. He guessed Stanley was to blame.

“Yeah, and one of them is tadasana which is pretty much standing straight,” Stanley talked back, smoothly entering the lotus pose and relaxing.

“You’re here because of the DnD, right?” Xeno addressed the boys, completely ignoring the shock painted all over Senkuu’s face.

“Yeah but, professor, let me say one thing first,” Senkuu said seriously, pointing at the whiteboard. “That math is badass, and the harmonic oscillation was added so smoothly it gave me chills. That board is just exhilarating. But I totally thought you were more on special relativity's side?”

Stanley cackled so badly that his abs gave in and he had to switch the pose.

“I am mostly for the relativity but… I can’t bring myself to deny that strings have certain irresistible elegance that I simply cannot disregard,” Xeno confessed like he was admitting to some dark secret.

“You sound like a married man cheating on his wife, Xeno-chan,” Gen teased him.

“Whatever. Thank you for your appreciation for my little side project, Senkuu, but this is just a rough draft, nothing to be too excited about,” he added with a little smile playing on his lips that proved that he actually did appreciate the compliment. “So you came for the rolls and my approvals, right?” he asked, glaring at the whiteboard with a lot of contradicting emotions in his eyes.

“We did,” Ukyou nodded. “But if you want to sleep some more, feel free to, we can drop by later.”

“It’s okay, I was about to get up anyway,” he said and walked over to pick up a folder with his notes for the game from one of the shelves by the TV and a dice pouch next to it.

Then, he sat down in the armchair, separating himself from the group. It didn’t slip Gen’s attention that the spot has been also been perfect for staring at Stanley which Gen could completely understand. When Xeno moved, his gown loosened a bit, revealing a massive hickey on his collar bone. Gen immediately rushed to fix it.

“Pardon, Xeno-chan, but as a Japanese man and a friend who values your dignity, I have to do this,” he pulled the collar to close it in its proper place, tight around Xeno’s neck. “Your secret lover seems to be going through the possessive phase again.”

“Again?” outrage vibrated in his voice. “I told them so many times that hickeys are pathetic, animalistic behavior that I find truly inelegant.”

“You wear neckties and chokers and neckties over your collar so it doesn’t really matter, Xeno-chan,” Gen assured him, giving him a calming pat on the shoulder before moving away. He sat down and, after tossing the last longing gaze at the whiteboard, Senkuu joined him on the couch.

“Senkuu,” Xeno cold him out suddenly, his voice out of the blue sounding more official and strict.

“Yes, professor?”

“I believe you’re smart enough to know that my current appearance is not something to gossip about with the other students and if you ever do so I won’t overuse the authority that comes from my position as your teacher and mentor to make your life at university miserable. But you’ll be dead to me as a human being and I’ll despise you. Am I clear?”

Gen could swear Senkuu was holding back a laugh behind his serious face.

“Crystal clear, professor. Silicon dioxide even.”

“Splendid. Now, I would rather avoid revealing too much about the world right now, especially since it’s a one-shot, but please tell me all you think that I should know about your characters and their background. Here,” he passed them each a character sheet. Ukyou promptly took a pen out of his pocket and started scribbling down on it. Gen and Senkuu hesitated since they first needed Xeno’s approval.

“I can go first since I already texted you about everything before,” Ukyou suggested. “And since you agreed, I’m going to just need stat rolls.”

“Sure,” Xeno said, handing Ukyou the dice but his eyes, as well as Gen’s, involuntarily drifted off to Stanley in the downward-facing dog. “Stanley, you’re almost done, right? You’re doing rolls too?

“Yeah, in a moment.”

“Then, Zefnys, halfling rogue with pet weasel Sally,” Xeno read aloud, having taken out his notes. “Roll.”

Ukyou’s rolls turned out good, all his stats except for charisma were above the average. Of course, he put the highest one in dexterity which combined with his racial bonus made him slightly broken in that aspect but Gen expected no less from his friend who passionately practised kyuudou for the last 6 years and loved everything related to archery. It, of course, didn’t mean that Ukyou always played as a rogue, in their last campaign he was a peaceful druid followed by a small group of adorable baby magical creatures.

Xeno accepted the shared backstory that Senkuu and Gen came up with, taking suspiciously detailed notes. He seemed to be especially interested in the rocks Kathos was collecting but, fortunately, Senkuu’s wits and surprisingly vast geological knowledge helped him with coming up with credible answers that made Xeno mutter ‘elegant’ with a tender smile on his face. Gen was pretty sure that this interview was due to his sheer curiosity, not that it would have any influence on the game what so ever.

Next came the stat roll. Senkuu was about to throw the dice for the first time when Stanley, apparently having finished his yoga approached them. Instead of taking a sit on the floor or making the youth squeeze on the couch close so he could have a place for himself, he poked Xeno on the side.

“Scoot over, Munchkin.”

“Did you just compare me to a childlike creature from Wizard of Oz? How rude,” Xeno accused adding a pugnacious glare for a good measure.

Stanley stared at him for a moment in sheer disbelief. Xeno didn’t move at all, just looked at him with a confident smug. Eventually, Stanley let out a short snort of laughter and patted his so-called friend on the head.

“You’re so adorable,” he stated. “But that’s your last chance to move willingly.”

“I’m not moving an inch for someone who ridiculed me for the way I look if you want to fit in my armchair, feel free to show off some of your hard-earned flexibility.”

“Sure, Munchkin.”

Xeno didn’t even have time cringe because suddenly took over the little space that was left in the left corner of the seat, squeezing one of his long legs behind Xeno’s back and throwing the other over his lap.

“Would be more comfortable if you did scoot over but whatever, I can stay like this for hours.”

“I do not doubt you, Stanley.”

“Hey, professor, as much as I’m glad to see that even you are able to enjoy your life on the weekend, can I roll?” Senkuu glared at them.

“By all means, Senkuu,” Xeno encouraged the boy.

Senkuu rolled the dice, they all looked down, Gen quickly added numbers in his head, even after dropping the lowest die it was just a miserable eight.

“Don’t worry, Senkuu-chan, it will be better the next time,” Gen gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder that he intentionally have let linger a moment longer.

Senkuu didn’t seem too dejected, especially since the probability was on his side. He rolled again, getting an eleven. And once again, getting a nine. After that finally came two decent twelves and a ten followed. All in all, even after adding racial and class bonuses, those were horrible stats. Since sorcerer’s skills were scaling with charisma and Senkuu himself was fond of intelligence and wisdom, he put all the highest numbers there, rolled again to determine HP, ending up with 17, which, in all honesty, with character physically weak as hell, although Gen has seen worse. Gen really hoped they would get a healer and resting points because this wasn’t looking good.

“Don’t worry, Senkuu-chan, I’m going to use a lot of bardic inspiration on you, you won’t die that easily. I hope,” Gen said pulling off a peal of rather sad laughter.

“Professor, are those dice okay? Is it some kind of a trick or a test?” Senkuu looked suspiciously at the carpet.

“What do you suggest, Senkuu?” Xeno suddenly seemed very interested.

“...Probably something as simple as traditional magnets is below your level but... If it was you, I would rather expect injecting magnets in the dice edges and having you or Stanley wear one to control it, or maybe when Stanley walked over he did something to disturb the field?”

“Wonderful theory, truly elegant,” Xeno smiled warmly. “But no.”

“Unfortunately for you, it was just your foul luck,” Stanley added. “Your turn, Gen, we’re all busy.”

“Oh right, you were supposed to bake cookies,” Xeno remembered with a smug. “Truly important business.”

“Shut up, Munchin.”

Gen easily rolled quite good stats, all above ten, with even a seventeen and two sixteens. Of course, he put all the best stats in charisma, dexterity, and intelligence so his character would be consistent. The only problem was his low HP, although still much higher than Senkuu’s, and general strength but he didn’t particularly mind. He had different goals for his character.

After that, Stanley finally stood up and took the dice in his hand.

“If I get three throws equal or above fifteen, can I get a wish?” he asked, looking down on Xeno.

“I’m your DM, not a Djin, Stan,” Xeno glared. “And if your wish is that your character is a heavy smoker, as your roommate, I won’t allow it.”

“Damn. Then, I want a yoyo,” Stanley demanded seriously.

“For what? As a weapon?”

“For fun. But I can hit something or someone with it from time to time, I’m a barbarian after all.”

“Okay, if you roll fifteen or higher three times, you can have your yoyo,” Xeno sighed. “But if you choose to use it as a weapon later, don’t expect that it will be scaled like an axe or a sword. It’s a yoyo, no matter how strong your half-orc is going to be.”

Stanley smiled sweetly and quickly proved that luck was on his side getting exceptionally good rolls. Of course, some of his stats were not so normal, like the twelve in intelligence, but they were all overshadowed by twenty in strength, seventeen in construction, and sixteen in dexterity. Stanley’s half-orc barbarian was going to be a beast.

After assuring his victory, Stanley cheerfully threw them out. Senkuu clearly wanted to stay longer with Xeno and the whiteboard but Stan had no mercy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: Yoga is highly recommended for snipers. It helps them with the right state of mind, keeping still for hours in sometimes strange positions and so on. So I'll have my little headcanon about Stanley doing yoga and I'll treasure it.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi~ Here you go, the second part of the super long DnD chapter! 
> 
> Have fun! ₊·*◟(˶╹̆ꇴ╹̆˵)◜‧*･
> 
> And thank you for all the kudos and comments! They make me super happy!

As they walked down the stairs, Ukyou was completely invested in texting someone so Gen watched over him so he wouldn’t fall. Not that Ukyou would fall, he was the kind of person who would be fine even if they tripped over. Good reflexes, always a perfect landing.

“Something interesting, Ukyou-chan?” he asked.

“I’m not going shopping, after all. Ryuusui is buying everything for everyone.”

“Hah, Ryuusui-chan, you say!~” Gen smirked and pulled out his own phone to ask his rich friend for a few more things for their little party.

For a moment they were just standing there on the staircase, focused on their phones. Senkuu took his own one out too and was tapping on the screen too. When Gen finished his message, he tossed a glare at Senkuu’s phone, just out of general curiosity, not to intentionally pry. It turned out Senkuu had some group chat open and clearly they were talking about the new Pokemon movie about a mysterious source of the power of fire, Gen recognized the poster.

He was quick to grasp the opportunity.

“Oh my~ You’re going to the Pokemon movie, Senkuu-chan?” he asked, moving closer to get a better look at the poster picture. “Mewtwo has always been my favourite but I guess Charizard was pretty cool too.”

“I’m going next week with my friends, it’s kind of a tradition since we were kids. Why does it sound like you’re going to try to trick me into taking you with me?” Senkuu sent a taxing but amused glare Gen’s way. “You are not even subtle about it, you know?”

“Me? Trick you? Where did you get this idea from, Senkuu-chan?” Gen asked innocently. “Or maybe you’re just interpreting this like that because you actually would like that I wanted you to invite you?”

“In your dreams, Mentalist. But... If you’re free on Thursday late afternoon and wanted to come with us, I wouldn’t exactly complain.”

“I can’t, I have a lecture,” Gen sighed heavily to emphasize his misery.

“Huh. I’ll ask the others if they can do another day,” Senkuu said calmly and started a new message but before he finished the first word, he’s been cut off by Gen’s soft chuckle.

“I’m fooling you, Senkuu-chan, I just wanted to see you care. Thursday is good.”

He saw the surprise and some strange satisfaction on Senkuu’s face appear but he didn’t want to face the accusations so he quickly withdrew, taking the last steeps of starts down and opening the door to the flat.

As he took off his shoes, he pondered if he should propose something like watching a movie since they had over an hour before the group was supposed to gather in Xeno’s apartment but before he could suggest something, Ukyou turned off his phone and spoke up seriously.

“If you two are done setting up your date, I want to ask Gen something unrelated.”

“We didn’t exactly call it a date, I mean, it’s just a Pokemon movie with my friends” Senkuu scratched his neck awkwardly. “But go ahead, I don’t mind.”

“Gen,” Ukyou started solemnly. “Will you make an origami flower crown for my pet weasel? I want to bring my plushie upstairs for the game and I want it to look dignified.”

“It would be a pleasure, Ukyou-chan,” Gen answered in a sedated voice.

Ukyou grinned and disappeared into his room. Senkuu suddenly looked very interested. Too interested for someone who was not involved with the subject.

“You can do origami, Mentalist?”

“Of course, I can. It’s very useful for magic tricks, I have skilled hands and flowers are pretty. But why do you look at me now like someone can make origami too, Senkuu-chan?” Gen asked, cocking his head to the side.

“I mean... I mostly do origami because it’s useful for engineering,” the other boy scratched his head. It seemed like Senkuu did that a lot when he was nervous; nevertheless, his voice always remained certain. “And maybe because origami dragons are cool.”

“Do you want to make one for me when I’ll be busy making the crown for the weasel?” Gen smiled sweetly. “Actually, maybe I’ll make something for you too after I’m done with Sally’s crown.”

The two of them ended up on the couch in the living room next to a pile of origami paper and with Gen’s model, Ukyou’s mascot weasel. Her owner went to the kitchen to prepare some snacks for the session and left both boys alone.

Senkuu kept throwing in fun facts about origami, like how it was used in aerospace engineering. But Gen was pretty sure that his actual motivation was to make origami creatures from Monster Hunter. The proficiency that Senkuu showed while folding the dragon was incredible.

“Hey Gen, do you have a hair clip that you don’t need anymore and some glue?” Senkuu asked suddenly, putting the fished dragon on the table.

Because of his bangs, Gen had a lot of hair clips in literally every corner of his room so he wasn’t too sad about sacrificing one. He quickly went to fetch it, curious about Senkuu’s plans but now of all times, the other boy decided to be secretive and Gen got back, he’s already made his camp behind the couch so Gen couldn’t see what he was working on. Gen smirked and refrained from asking any questions except for just one:

“Hide your toys, Senkuu-chan, I’m coming!~ How long will your project take?”

“Hm... Seventeen minutes, including the glue drying.”

“Okay~” Gen accepted it with a smile. He handed over the clip and superglue tube because that was the only type he’s found.

“Mentalist, you realize that if I use this glue, you definitely won’t be getting that hair clip back, right?”

“Have fun with it, Senkuu-chan,” Gen winked, going back to his original spot. He heard Senkuu chuckle behind him. “I’m going to make something in secret for you too so no peeking~”

He picked up a piece of origami paper with a geometric pattern and started folding it with a little help from his phone and the Internet. Since Senkuu was clearly making him a hairclip, something that he would definitely use, he planned to go with a practical gift too. A pencil case seemed a perfect option.

“Did you know origami is used to make a flexible and light bulletproof portable shield?” Senkuu provided with another fun fact.

“Believe it or not, Stanley even showed a photo of one, he seemed very excited. For now, it can’t stop riffles though, right?”

“It’s a work in progress, soon the engineers should figure it out,” Senkuu agreed his voice displaying an unshaken trust in the power of science.

They kept chatting until both of their origamis were done. They both hid the gifts behind their back and sat down next to each other on the couch. Ukyou’s humming in the kitchen seemed to be much lauder out of the blue and the silent tension that grew with each second as they looked at each other with anticipation.

“Ready? Senkuu-chan, can I go fist? I have a gift for you,” Gen smiled so shyly he even surprised himself. Still, he did his best to sound aloof and more in character. However, he had the impression that it was all in vain, Senkuu seemed to be able to see right through him.

“If you want to,” Senkuu agreed.

“Okay, then,” Gen pulled the pencil case from behind his back, displaying it in both hands as if in a commercial. “Behold! A practical and beautiful pencil case that will make you think of my masterful crafting skills whenever you want to write down some crazy science stuff!”

“Awesome,” Senkuu grinned like a kid that got a new lunchbox with their favorite comic book character. He took his gift in a hand started checking it out from every angle. “Looks really study, how did you do this?”

“A magician can’t reveal his tricks, Senkuu-chan,” Gen announced with a beaming smile on his face.

“You double folded it, didn’t you?”

“Maybe~ Now, can I get my gift?” he moved closer, anticipation vibrant in his eyes.

Senkuu put down the pencil case on the table next to Sally and all of a sudden a flustered expression appeared on his face.

“Okay, so Mentalist, if you dare to laugh, forget about more cola. And the corridor lamp.”

“I promise I won’t, Senkuu-chan,” Gen said sincerely, putting a hand over his heart for a dramatic effect.

“I’m serious. Because this is probably going to be the sappiest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

Gen was growing even more curious now. How could a hairclip be that embarrassing? Maybe a heart? A flower?

“Senkuu-chan~ Stop making me wait, I’m miserable here~” he pouted.

“Fine.”

Senkuu sighed, took a deep breath in, and finally awkwardly stretched out his hand with a hairpin little violet kitten origami attached to it. Gen gasped quietly because that was the most adorable hairclip he has ever owned. It wasn’t big or vibrant enough to make it kitsch, it was an elegant cuteness that he couldn’t help but just love instantly.

“Senkuu, this is beautiful. I’m moved.”

“Well, I figured it would suit you since you’re a cat, deep down,” Senkuu joked, clearly more relaxed and confident now.

“I love it. Can you help me put it on?” Gen asked without thinking, only after the words left his lips realizing his mistake.

He wasn’t exactly fond of people touching him. But well, since it was Senkuu, it was probably going to be okay.

“Sure, black side or white?”

“White, of course, it needs to be visible.”

Gen closed his eyes when Senkuu’s hand approached. He slightly tensed up since he absolutely hated it when guys rubbed their fingers on his face thinking they are being romantic. He hoped Senkuu had more class but still he expected him to use the occasion and casually brush his fingers against Gen’s cheek or maybe let them linger. But he did none of those things.

When Gen opened his eyes he felt happy. Because of the cat hairpin, because Senkuu once again showed him that he was different, and above all because he was met with the familiar cocky and a little vile smile that he was growing more and more infatuated with. 

“How do I look?” he asked.

“Like a grown-up man with a DYI cat hair clip, just completely ridiculous,” Senkuu teased him with warmth sounding in his voice and even a wider smile playing on his lips.

“Yeah, I can see you grinning like an idiot because it’s so funny,” Gen mocked him in return. “Or maybe it’s because I look so cute?”

“And now you’re really being ridiculous, Mentalist,” Senkuu let out an awkward chuckle but a light shade of pink covered his cheeks.

“It’s part of my charm~” Gen explained, backing off a little, not to scare him off. They had time, there was no need to rush. “So how does one come from aerospace engineering and cool dragons to making cute hairclips?”

“It’s embarrassing but I learnt how to do this only to teach my dad who wanted to impress his girlfriend,” Senkuu let out an exasperated sigh. “Helpless old man.”

“Did it work?” Gen tilted his head, feeling a nice pressure where the clip was holding the hair in place.

“Surprisingly well and horribly at the same time. He made her a really huge flower clip since he tends to go overboard with everything. And it was a really awful one, just imagine an atrocious multicolor flower the size of a tennis ball. it’s just above my comprehension how could someone go about with something so big in their hair but she does it with a smile on her face on a weekly basis,” he rolled his eyes in disbelief.

“Love makes people do crazy things~ But disregarding any feelings that may or may not be, I think that the hair clip is just adorable,” Gen assured him with a smile that might have been a little too dorkish.

“Thanks... Your pencil case is going to be both nice to look at and useful so it’s awesome too.”

“By the way, I love the stories about your dad, the only things I know about him are that he learnt origami for his girlfriend and that he gives Xeno cookies for good behaviour.”

“Wait, what?” Senkuu blinked in surprise.

“Yeah because Xeno-chan once gave him a speech about how he would love to be a dictator in a technocratic society and now your dad gives him a cookie whenever Xeno praises democracy or equality or something like that,” Gen provided with as much detail as he has collected. “But Xeno-chan doesn’t really believe in equality so he doesn’t get cookies that often.”

“Why am I not surprised...”

They were disturbed by the knock on the door followed by Ukyou’s voice from the kitchen.

“Gen, can you open?” he raised his voice so he would be heard. “It’s Ryuusui!”

“Well, Senkuu-chan, it seems like it’s time to show off my new look, don’t you think?” Gen suggested with a mischievous smirk.

“You’re killing it, Mentalist.”

Gen happily frolicked to the door and opened it wide. Ryuusui welcomed him with a toothy grin and immediately threw a box of ice cream into Gen’s hands, so abruptly, that the boy was barely able to catch it. Laughing loudly, Ryuusui ran his fingers through his seemingly unruly blond hair. Gen knew it was just a perfectly crafted appearance that took a lot of styling gel and regular visits at a high-end barbershop.

To his greatest joy, Ryuusui placed a six-pack of cola on the floor. Gen gasped loudly.

“Thanks, Ryuusui-chan!”

“No prob, I was coming by car either way. Cool hair cat, I’m digging the new kawaii look, makes you hot as hell.”

“Stop it, you’re going to make me blush.”

“So where’s the guy?” Ryuusui’s glare got more passionate out of the blue. The excitement was vibrating in his voice.

Gen cocked his head to the side innocently, fully conscious that he exposed the hairclip even more this way. Of course, it didn’t slip his friend’s attention.

“What guy?”

“So it’s a gift from him? And of course, I know about the guy, Ukyou told me you all about your... OH MY GOD, FIBONACCI BRO!” suddenly, Ryussui let out a joyful scream, looking at someone behind Gen.

He rushed past him without taking off his shoes just to crush Senkuu in a bear hug.

“Yo, Hayek bro,” Senkuu muttered in bewilderment, to Gen’s surprise, hugging Ryusui back.

“Dude, you hurt my feelings, you know I’m more of a Keynes type of a guy.”

“Yeah, I know, I was just teasing you.”

“I missed you so much, man...”

Ryuusui finally let Senkuu go but Gen still felt like he was intruding on their intimate moment. So they knew each other... probably they had some class together. He remembered Ryuusui talking about some cool science nerd last semester who sat next to him during one of the seminars and helped him with his math homework. If he remembered correctly, Ryuusui even planned to get a beer with the guy but they never got around to it.

“So you two had a class together? Gen asked.

“Yeah, ‘Sex, drugs and rock&roll’ by the Economy Faculty and Liberal Arts,” Ryuusui explained. “It was about the consumer economy, pretty cool stuff. But Senkuu, bro, why are you here?”

“Xeno is my mentor so...”

“Gen invited him!” Ukyou provided from the kitchen.

“Thanks, Ukyou!” Ryuusui yelled back. “You’re always a treasure!”

And suddenly, it looked like Ryuusui connected the dots in his mind and finally realized the reason behind Senkuu’s presence. His bewildered eyes drifted in shock from one student to another, lingering for a moment longer on the hair clip. Then, they moved to Senkuu again and froze. His expression became more stern.

Gen gulped, having a bad feeling about it.

“Senkuu, bro, listen. I didn’t expect it to be you, and really I didn’t expect you to pull origami and jewelry making on me but I’m not the type to back down just like that. And also, I would like to say that I like you, you’re a fantastic bro, so don’t take what’s about to happen personally, it’s just something I have decided to do a while ago no matter who it would be.”

“Oh no,” Gen whispered, knowing well that Ryuusui’s long-term ideas were usually borderline crazy. Senkuu on the other hand was looking at them in confusion.

“So listen, Senkuu,” Ryuusui placed his hand on Senkuu’s shoulder in a more menacing than friendly manner. “I am the evil ex. I’m here to remind you, every step of the way, that I’m rich, handsome, and still single. Get ready for hell.”

“Ha?” Senkuu bleated with a stupefied expression.

Gen just sighed heavily, at the same time both a little disappointed and impressed by the guts it took to say aloud such an audacious lie almost three years after the one single failed date that happened when they barely knew each other.

But whatever the reason was, he had little doubt that Ryuusui would turn their little drama into something spectacular unless he would stop him.

“He’s not my evil ex, Senkuu-chan. He’s just my crazy friend.”

“Okay,” Senkuu shrugged. “I trust Gen.”

Ryuusui seemed so torn and badly disappointed that Gen felt a little bit guilty. Ukyou who poked his head out of the kitchen seemed to have noticed it too.

“Can’t you just play along?” he asked. “Ryuusui was very excited about this.”

Gen sighed, having a hard time deciding whether he was willing to give up on his own comfort to make his friend happy Well, not really his own, probably Senkuu’s too. In the end, he moved closer to the boy.

“Okay, let’s start again. Senkuu-chan, this is my friend Ryuusui whom I met three years ago and during one of the individual program student beers. We might also have kissed that night because we were both young, naïve, and drunk. Then, we had a date the following weekend but halfway through the said date, we discovered a shocking truth that we want completely different things from a partner so we have decided to stay friends which had worked out very well. That was until the day that Ryuusui decided to be an asshole to his other friend and me by claiming he’s the evil ex,” he finished with an exasperated sigh.

“Hm..,” Senkuu figured out Gen’s approach pretty quickly. “That does sound more true,” he said. “But I guess I have to disagree with you in point, Mentalist. Ryuusui is right, he is your ex.”

“Bro,” Ryuusui grinned and gave his friend another hug. “I like you so much I’m almost sorry that I’m going to roast you.”

Gen and Senkuu’s eyes met and they both smirked in a quiet alliance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Origami is awesome and used for some really amazing things like NASA's Starshade. And the light bulletproof shields. It's all real. But actually, I first came up with this part because my friend is writing a master thesis about the spiritual aspects of origami (♡´艸`) Origami really has it all. 
> 
> 'Sex, drugs and rock&roll' is also real, it's an actual course at the uni I went to, my ex-mentor's best bro was in charge of it. Students loved it. 
> 
> And I just wanted to say that I love Ryuusui so much! (๑ˊ͈ ॢꇴ ˋ͈)〜♡॰ॱ I'm so excited to see him animated (hopefully) in season two! 
> 
> See you next chapter! (Finally they will actually play DnD~)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Everyone!  
> So December was pretty hard for me, I am juggling my masters and a job in finance. It's my first year working seriously and I have heard rumours end of the fiscal year is hell but I never imagined it would be that bad. ｡ﾟ･ (>﹏<) ･ﾟ｡  
> In this tough time, I'm even more grateful for the kudos and comments! (sorry but I was so tired this month that I'm just getting around to replying, they are all so lovely, thank you!) It was so nice to refresh ao3 from time to time and find something from you there, it always made me smile and gave me a boost of energy!
> 
> Anyways, here is a long-promised DnD chapter, checked by my beloved bro who is a truly charming dungeon master. 
> 
> IF YOU WANT TO SKIP DND -> go to the '***' because there is more in this chapter than just playing ^^ 
> 
> Just a little note to help with who's who in DnD if you ever get lost:  
> (name, race, class)  
> GEN: Hot as Fire, tabaxi, bard  
> SENKUU: Kathos, tiefling, sorcerer  
> STAN: Orbul, half-orc, barbarian  
> RYUUSUI: Aalkic Rhowunax, dragonborn, bard  
> UKYOU: Zefnys, halfling, rogue  
> TSUKASA: Tarorin, halfling, paladin  
> LUNA: Inarie, high elf, druid
> 
> I actually had tons of fun writing this so I hope you'll enjoy it too! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

“...The earthquake has stopped but the auction house walls are crumbling, the other people are running towards the exit. What do you do?”

“I look for something valuable that I can steal quickly,” Ukyou answered seriously.

“Perception check,” Xeno ordered.

Ukyou rolled the dice no questions asked. Ryuusui reached for a potato chip, not dealing well with the tension. Both Luna and Tsukasa sent disapproving glares his way.

None of them was really surprised that the auction house was about to collapse, it was typical in Xeno’s stories, he liked to start them with a disaster for a good measure. But it was a shame Ryuusui’s character didn’t have enough time yet to spend his family fortune on something useless. Gen just hoped the auction house wasn’t the only chance for reckless shopping they would get this game.

“You fail to notice the ornamented watch in the corner of the room, instead your eyes fall on a white opal stone exhibited in the centre. It strikes you as extremely beautiful and rare, however undoubtedly magical or divine even. ”

“I still want to take it. Probably it’s going to sell well.”

“You swiftly approach the stand, making your way through the last wave of escaping auction guests. You take the gemstone in your hands, feeling strange power vibrating through it, the power that you’ve never experienced before. Suddenly, a flash of light coming from the stone brightens up the room. And out of the blue, everything is gone. You are standing in a room that resembles the waiting room in a hospital, it is rather empty except for a few shabby chairs. They used to be dark green but the paint is chipping off so badly it’s hard to tell now the exact shade. You realize you are not alone here, it seems like the people that stood closest to you in the auction house got sucked into the portal too. You recognize the tiefling and tabaxi who attacked the buffet table right when the chaos started. They are still holding finger sandwiches in their hands. There is also the tall Dragonborn who was betting jewelry earlier, a scarily looking buff half-orc lady, a lovely elven druid with a crown made of tree branches, and a halfling dressed all in red. And there is no stone in your hand, it vanished.”

“How disappointing,” Ukyou sighed. “I really wanted this stone, shame it just teleported us. Well, of course, I pretend I’m just confused as all the others.”

“Does he seem suspicious?” Ryuusui asked.

“Hm...” Xeno pondered for a moment. “Zefnys, deception check. Aalkic, insight.”

Ukyou gulped since his charisma modifier was zero. He hesitantly picked up the dice and for a moment he just played with them in his palm. Xeno fished out another die from his sachet for Ryuusui.

Ukyou dropped the die on the floor and Ryuusui did the same with a confident grin. To his horror, they both rolled sixteen.

“Well, you’re an experienced thief and even though you look suspicious to the group, especially to the dragonborn, however, his wisdom modifier is minus two so he can’t figure out what’s wrong,” Xeno provided with a smirk. “Zefnys’s hands are empty and he seems as confused as the rest of you. You have no reason to doubt him.”

“Is there a way out?” Luna asked

“No windows, there’s a door, just one. Green, sturdy. Matches the chair, they probably used the same paint but this one held up. It’s definitely dark green. ”

“Can I open it?”

“No, it’s closed.”

“Bang on it, girl,” Stanley encouraged doing his best impersonating the scary orc lady that since the beginning of the game was treating Luna as if she was her clumsy niece. And Luna did an amazing job pretending that she was terrified of her.

“Okay, then I’m knocking,” Luna quickly agreed with no protest.

“Nothing.”

“Hey, orc lady. It looks like we’re the strongest ones here, let’s punch the door together. Even if no one answers, maybe we can break it, “ Tsukasa proposed.

“My name is Orbul, young man. And since I know about thirty ways of killing you in less than a minute, I expect you to address me with respect,” Stanley demanded mightly and turned to the dungeon master. “I punch the door together with the arrogant brat.”

“Both of you strength check,” Xeno demanded and waited until they to did as he asked. “The door for a moment looked like it was about to break out of the frame but only a long crack appeared. The door remains closed, no one got injured but your hands hurt a bit.”

“They totally should punch it again,” Senkuu voted.

“I cast bardic inspiration on the halfling in red since Orbul is buff enough already,” Gen joyfully announced. “Just look at her mighty arms!”

“Thanks, kitten,” Stanley smiled sweetly to his neighbour like he always did. “Now, does anyone want to do something else or we can break that door?”

“By all means,” Ukyou encouraged them. “Actually, where do you think we are?”

“Probably something triggered some portal at the auction, maybe some wizard wanted to get out and messed up the spell,” Senkuu shrugged. “We need to get out of this room first. ”

“Let’s hit the door then,” Tsukasa agreed and Stanley gave an affirmative nod.

They rolled the die again and waited for Xeno’s feedback.

“You are ready to make sure the door will never stop anyone again, you both are already holding the fists in the air when something unexpected happens. There’s a press on the handle and the door slowly cracks open. You are greeted by a goblin with a stern expression. One look at him and you know he’s a professional man who doesn’t like fooling around. He may be shorter than all of you but he’s wearing a tailored suit.”

“Damn, a suit,” Ryuusui gasped.

“The goblin judges you all with a harsh, cold glare and then he opens his mouth. ‘Are you all here for the job interview?’” Xeno asked in a gruff voice.

Gen could swear Senkuu jumped up a little since he wasn’t used to Xeno’s acting skills displays and couldn’t help getting startled every few minutes. 

“Of course we are!” Gen clapped his hands together. “Pardon us for the door, we were just getting impatient since we can’t wait to work at this fine establishment.”

“I am a Paladin of Communism. Job interviews are for the capitalists,” Tsukasa scoffed.

“Sorry, he had a long trip to here and didn’t get enough sleep, he’s talking nonsense.” Ukyou quickly assured.

“The goblin clearly doesn’t trust you,” Xeno announced. “He keeps looking your way as if he would like to throw you out if the choice was up to him. ‘Are you applying as a team?’, he asks.”

“Yes, we are,” Gen answered charmingly.

“’ Hah. Undoubtedly, you can’t read, the ad stated clearly that we need a team of six people, not seven. The boss doesn’t like people who are too stupid to read.’”

“Yeah, but we have two halflings. Two halves are one in total,” Senkuu said confidently. “It’s really simple math.”

Xeno smiled with amusement.

“The goblin gasped, very impressed by your arithmetic skills. ‘Are you a sorcerer too, like the master?!’ he squeals in high pitched voice. ‘That is splendid, your team should be interviewed immediately or... let’s just skip the initial interview, you pass, you should proceed to the trial mission and if you succeed, I shall introduce you to the master. Please follow me’.”

“Cool. But the offer was pretty vague, could you like... give us a more detailed job description?” Luna asked. “And maybe the remuneration?”

“’ Of course! Let me tell you a little more about our project!’. You follow him through a corridor similar to the waiting room you’ve just been in and finally reach the huge door at the end. The goblin takes out a key hanging around his neck on a silver chain. He unlocks the door and opens it, letting the sun in. It’s much brighter than you expected, it blinds you for a moment. You seem to be in a foreign place, on your left there’s a vast desert full of reddish rocks, nothing like you’ve seen before. The air is dusty but you can breathe easily, probably because of some powerful spell that has been cast on the area. On the right, you see cornfields and a village that looks quite prosperous, the houses are big and made of brick, the streets are clean. There is a strange, flamboyant castle towering over the place, on first glance it seems late-gothic with all the towers and elevations but the details and ornaments are made of metal. As your eyes follow the tallest fleche, you notice that there are two moons on the sky, barely visible in the light of day.”

“Are we on Mars?” Senkuu deadpanned. “Is this really a Disneyland castle on Mars?”

“Metal ornaments,” Xeno pointed out the important detail.

“Okay, fine, is this a steampunk Disneyland on Mars?”

“I can’t tell you that,” Xeno scoffed. “Roll perception.”

Senkuu grabbed the die and dropped it on the floor with eyes focused on his professor. Xeno looked down only to check the score.

“Well, it certainly does look a lot like steampunk Disneyland and you are almost sure you are on Mars but not, as you like to put it, _ten billion percent sure_.”

“Awesome,” Ryuusui grinned. “Can I buy this castle? I like it.”

“No,” Xeno said coldly, mimicking the goblin’s voice. “It’s the master’s castle and the project headquarters. And the castle is not finished, the master is still missing some essential parts. We were able to find out their locations, your recruitment task is to bring them here. If you manage to do so, you will be introduced to the sorcerer and if he likes you, you will be allowed to join our community. With all the benefits that come from it.”

“What benefits? And what does the community do?”

“We live peacefully and prosper in the glory of the sorcerer. He gives us quests and land to farm. We get food and everything we could need from him, if we are missing anything we can submit a request.”

“Sounds... like communism,” Tsukasa said with joy vibrating through his voice.

“What is communism?’, the goblin asked in confusion.’”

“Just an ideology and way of living I chose to swore my loyalty to as a paladin,” Tsukasa explained. “I take out the ‘Communist Manifesto’ and put it against my heart. I caress the book with love.”

“One thing keeps bothering me, Mr. Goblin,” Gen interrupted. “Is there a way out from here?”

Xeno allowed the group to panic quietly for a moment before saying:

“’ Of course. There are daily portals to various places in the world available to community members. But since you’re not part of the community, the only way out for you is the emergency exit in the volcano there,’ the goblin said, pointing to the mountain barely visible on the horizon, it seems really far. ‘Or you can join our community’, he adds.”

“Is joining the community for life?” Ukoyou asked. “I’m more of a freelancer, I’m not so sure about this.”

“Of course not! But we would prefer it if you respected the 3-months notice period. However, our community provides you with a lot of holiday options so you are free to do your freelancer thingies on the side.”

“What are your wishes? Can I ask for a never-ending supply of cigarettes?” Stanley asked.

“Yes. Probably. You would have to ask the sorcerer.”

“Can we ask him to kill an elf warlock for us? Or at least get his help defeating him?” Senkuu asked. “Or maybe he can unstone a kingdom that got cursed?”

“’ The sorcerer is very powerful and he can do anything!’, the goblin insists and there is no shadow of a doubt in his voice. It seems that the sorcerer may be really something, the Disneyland castle is truly impressive.”

It took some more convincing, talk about vacation days, salary, food, and a detailed job description before they decided to apply and, in the worst-case scenario, they would simply jump in the first portal they could find to run far away.

Well, Kathos and Hot as Fire weren’t really planning to go, they had a plan to force the sorcerer to help them with their personal matter. Also, Tsukasa’s Tarorin was quite excited about the community’s political system. The rest was more or less skeptical still, they decided to try since it seemed like a better idea than whatever Xeno had planned as an alternative.

The sorcerer needed a team of explorers to help him find certain artifacts and items he needed to decorate his castle. Of course, it meant going around dungeons and other strange places.

In the first dungeon, Orbul, Stanley’s half-orc, killed a ghoul with his yoyo, and Ryuusui’s character found a pet snake that immediately started a war with Ukyou’s pet weasel but quickly got adopted into their team nevertheless.

In the second one, they got trapped in kobolts’ maze. The little creatures kidnapped Kathos and Luna’s Inarie and forced them to play house with their youngest ones, they even got them fake married. Fortunately, Tarorin found them quickly and, empowered by Hot as Fire’s bardic inspiration, convinced the kobolts that communism was better than family.

It took the group quite some time but they managed to find all the magical items they needed to pass to the next level of the interview: meeting the sorcerer who was the ruler of the community. It was already dark outside so they knew it would be probably the grand finale of the one-shot.

The sorcerer turned out to be more of a nerd than a true dictator he claimed to be. He got very excited over the magical rock they brought and all the other items. It seemed that they had secured their jobs but then, all of a sudden, they found out that there had been an impostor among them.

One of the team was actually a sorcerer’s recruiter who has been sending sorcerer reports all along. They got closed in the room in the castle’s dungeon (for privacy purposes) where they should discuss who might be the impostor and figure out what to do with them. It looked like the final test of intelligence and character.

“I think it’s pretty obvious that it’s Zefnys,” Senkuu said, glaring at Ukyou.

“What makes you say so, Kathos-chan? By the way, me and Kathos-chan are definitely not spies since we have a common backstory so either we would be spies together or not at all~ And two impostors for a group of seven is just too much.”

“Exactly, we’re clean. But Zefnys has been doing something behind our back, we all saw him being sneaky and roll deception a few times,” Senkuu accused.

Ukyou sighed heavily.

“Fine,” he said and turned to Xeno. “I pull out the items I stole from them along the way and give them back. Except for Aalkic’s golden watch, I took a liking to it and he’s rich so it won’t matter.”

They weren’t even surprised by this, Ukyou did warn them that his character was a thief repeatedly so they should have seen it coming.

“That’s my grandfather’s watch!” Ryuusui tried to argue.

“It’s not, when we were in the first dungeon, you boasted about how you bought it at a discount. I have my standards, I didn’t even think of stealing Fire’s lute after he mentioned that it was from his grandpa who supported his bardic career. Not to mention that it would be a bitch to carry. Going back to the impostor, I think it’s Orbul.”

Stanley’s lips twitched in a smile that was both soft and dreadful.

“Are you sure you want to accuse the strongest person in the room, little halfling?” he grumbled in low voice.

“But I agree too!” Luna exclaimed. “The sorcerer was totally nicer to you than to the rest of us!”

Stanley and Xeno exchanged a quick glance. Then, Stanley took a long drag of his cigarette before answering, dead seriously.

“Maybe I’m his type.”

“Seven feet tall half-orc barbarian mountain of muscles?” Ukyou raised his eyebrows.

“Don’t be racist.”

“Yeah, every woman is beautiful!” Ryuusui defended Orbul. “Sorcerer is a good catch, he’s smart and it looks like he’s loaded, comes with a Disneyland castle and portals to good vacation spots. Hell, I’m jealous now he didn’t check me out! By the way, if someone is the spy, it’s totally Inarie,” he pointed at Luna. “She’s cute, adorable, even if we figured out she’s stealthy recruiter we would still like her.” 

“Thanks,” Luna smiled awkwardly. “But it’s not me.”

“He has a point, she would be a good spy,” Senkuu nodded. “Not as good as Hot as Fire but good.”

“Aww, thank you!” Gen smiled.

“But that’s because you have no dignity.”

“I have an idea,” Tsukasa interrupted them. “I think I understood it. I’m entirely sure it’s either Aalkic or he will be dead soon.”

“...What?” Ryuusui asked, clearly not very convinced.

“He’s a capitalist. This is a commune. Either he created this identity so we wouldn’t suspect him or he’s really a capitalist and this is not a place for him. And he will be killed as soon as he tries to preach free market among the people who live here. They will lynch him.”

“They won’t lynch me if I’ll have their boss support,” Ryuusui answered with a cocky grin. “The sorcerer seems like a reasonable man, I’m gonna try to convince him to open the economy up a little, I think he’s going to get my point.”

“You plan to go against the system that I swore loyalty to?!” Tsukasa was outraged.

“Well, not like communism is perfect, it’s just...”

“I try to stab him,” Tsukasa announced seriously. “I’m the Paladin of Communism, I feel like it’s my duty.”

Gen sighed with resignation. He’s been fearing it would turn out like this, ever since they both announced views on the economy.

“Okay, roll d20,” Xeno asked with a content smile. “But I remind you’re not a rogue so it’s not a sneak attack.”

Tsukasa rolled 16 which combined with his strength modifier and proficiency, followed by the exquisite damage roll was just enough to reduce Aalkic’s hit points to zero in one hit. Less than an hour ago, Aalkic got bitten when he tried to play with Zefnys’s weasel and he was still wounded, it didn’t seem much at the time but right now those lost points made a huge difference.

“WHAT THE HELL, MAN?!” Ryuusui gawked.

“That’s for communism.”

“Aalkic, don’t talk too much, you’re bleeding out. Death saving throw,” Xeno ordered.

Ryuusui rolled the die but got exactly one, leaving him with just one last chance.

“Oh my god, stop it!” Luna panicked. “I’m healing him with the healing word!”

“Roll 1d4,” Xeno instructed but Luna was already grabbing the dice and throwing it on the floor. She managed to give Ryuusui back 4 HP.

“I propose that we all throw ourselves at Tarorin to stop him,” Senkuu said.

“Persuasion check.”

Everyone in the room except for the half-dead Aalkic jumped on Tarorin to stop him. Fortunately, Zefnys stole a rope from somewhere earlier so they managed to bind him tightly to the chair and safely return to their discussion.

“Well, looks like it’s not Tarorin-chan,” Gen pointed out. “He would just throw Aalkic out without the need to kill him if he was a recruiter.”

“It’s not me,” Ryuusui insisted. “A capitalist like me wouldn’t be an impostor for the sake of a commune. Too risky.”

“Fine,” Tsukasa sighed. “Assuming it’s not the capitalist, I know who it is.”

“Yeah me too,” Senkuu agreed.

“It’s Inarie,” Tsukasa said.

“Ha?” Luna gasped in surprise.

“Yeah, it’s totally you,” Senkuu insisted. “When we were married you told me about your perfect guy and the sorcerer is matching the picture but somehow you didn’t seem upset about him hitting on Orbul. So you probably already knew him before since you didn’t treat him as a potential boyfriend even though he was literally perfect for you.”

“Maybe I got upset but I was good at hiding it?”

“Then how can you explain the fact that the pattern on your dress looks a lot like the flag of this commune?” Tsukasa asked.

“Finally, you’ve noticed!” Xeno let out a relieved sigh. “I was starting to think that I overestimated your perception.”

“You mentioned the flag and the dress in the description like three times prof., it was definitely enough,” Senkuu shrugged. “Anyways, dear impostor, are we hired? I and Fire kind of really want that one year bonus.”

“I suppose you are,” Luna sighed with resignation. “That depends on sorcerer but he’d be a bitch to fail you. You did well.”

“So... that’s it? Should we tell the goblin that we’re done? But what about Tarorin?”

“Well, we have to ask the higher-ups,” Gen shrugged. “Or we could always kill him now and make it look like self-defense but it would be just mean.”

“Wait!” Ryuusui stopped them. “Inarie, what is wrong with the sorcerer? Tell us. We still can run away from this job.”

“Nothing’s wrong with him,” she shrugged. “And the benefits are really good. It’s just that he’s a little... peculiar. But he’s a sweet guy, Orbul you should definitely go for it!”

“Should I go for it?” Stan looked at Xeno in between two long cigarette drags.

“Inarie, persuasion check.”

Luna actually rolled full twenty this time. She grinned with satisfaction.

“Yes, you and the sorcerer will be very happy together and you will get half of the castle after you get married.”

“Cool,” Stanley approved.

After that, they called the goblin and went back to the sorcerer. They all got the job but were faced with a difficult choice at the end. It turned out that the commune was against any acts that could possibly link it to the totalitarian system so either they could swear to pretend that the attack on Aalkic was an unfortunate accident or they could deny and have Tarorin thrown out of the commune. They decided to let him stay, as long as he promised not to hurt anyone else.

They all lived happily on Mars ever after. Aalkic convinced the sorcerer to open up the economy a bit and was in charge of export. Orbul married the sorcerer and became the second ruler of the commune but she still went on the dungeon raids just for the fun of it. She usually took Tarorin with her. Zefnys was officially employed by the commune but mostly he worked abroad, obtaining the items that sorcerer needed.

For Kathos and Hot as Fire, the ending was quite fortunate, it turned out that the sorcerer knew the elven warlock’s wife and he pulled some strings so she would force him to simply asked him to unstone everyone in their kingdom. They got quite comfortable living in the commune so they didn’t exactly come back but instead they brought Fire’s grandpa to live with them on Mars. Kathos became sorcerer’s apprentice and Fire had performances almost every day, sponsored by the local government. 

***

They all ended up staying for dinner after the game, except for Tsukasa who wanted to come back home earlier to his little sister. Since Gen was advised against helping in the kitchen, he decided to go out on the balcony and Senkuu joined him, deeming the kitchen too crowded for him, supposedly.

Of course, they ended up chatting about the one-shot, whether the commune was really communist or maybe a technocratic regime, the ending and if Luna was really a spy all along, even when she played house with Senkuu and kobolts.

“So, Senkuu-chan~ Stanley-chan’s and Xeno-chan’s alter egos got married but ours ended up as just friends, aren’t you disappointed?”

“I don’t think I would ever feel disappointed with being friends with you, Mentalist. You’re pretty cool,” Senkuu answered with a lopsided smirk.

“That’s not what I meant,” Gen sighed.

Their eyes met and for a moment they just stared at each other in silence only interrupted by the echo of Ryuusui’s laughter coming from the kitchen. From all the people Gen knew, Senkuu was one of the hardest to read, Gen was painfully aware of this fact at times like that.

He really wished he knew what was going on behind this confident, slightly mischievous smile.

“I know,” Senkuu admitted, his voice was a bit quieter than Gen expected. “But I meant it. How about you?”

Gen opened his mouth to say something appropriately vague in response but closed them when he saw Stanley in the balcony door, a package of cigarettes and a lighter in hand.

“Hah, what a wonderful timing, Stanley-chan...”

“I thought you could smoke inside,” Senkuu glared suspiciously.

“Did I interrupt something? Well, it’s my place so you don’t get a say in this. I can’t smoke when there’s something cooking, chemical reactions happen and then food tastes like ‘my toxic fumes’ or so Xeno claims.”

“Makes sense,” Senkuu nodded with understanding as Stanley lit up his cigarette.

“Since we’re already here...” Stanley started, putting his lighter away. “Gen, take care of my Munchkin when I’m away. Supervise him so he doesn’t blow up this place and if he does, make sure he calls the fire department.”

“How optimistic, Stanley-chan~” Gen let out an awkward giggle.

“Make him eat every day. Upload my daily Xeno picture to our shared folder. If he tries to take over the world, tell him to wait with that until I get home. Same for you,” he poked Senkuu’s chest with his finger. “You can play with him, do science stuff, and all the creepy experiments as long as they are mostly safe but no world domination. And if he pulls out string theory, watch the time so he makes it to the lecture.”

“Sure,” Senkuu nodded with a slightly mischievous smirk as if he had already something planned.

“You don’t have to worry so much, Stanley-chan, you’re going away every other month and Xeno-chan somehow always survives,” Gen gave him a reassuring smile that didn’t seem to have much effect. “You’ll be back before he even gets lonely.”

“You have no idea how much shit I have seen since I first met him... If he gets arrested again, tell him to shut up and text me immediately. And if he tells you to contact NASA or FBI, do it, no questions asked.”

“Arrested _again_?” Senkuu blinked. “I’m surprised but not really surprised.”

“Please. That idiot has built his first gun for fun when he was ten,” Stanley rolled his eyes. “I’m actually surprised no one arrested us until high school.”

“Xeno showed me your mugshot, it’s very pretty,” Gen smiled at Stanley. The arrest wasn’t really news for him, it was part of the regular speech he always heard always when Stanley left for work.

“As you see, I have every reason in the world to worry about my evil Munchkin. And a new problem,” Stanley straightened up, towering above Senkuu in the most menacing manner possible. “If you so much as lay a finger on our cat when he doesn’t want you to, you’re going to wish I would simply kill you when I get back.”

“No need to get violent~” Gen tried to mediate. “We’re just friends, Stanley-chan!”

“I don’t think you have to worry about Gen,” Senkuu said. “He can take care of himself.”

“Don’t take it the wrong way, brat, I do appreciate how you’re entertaining my fiancé so much that he’s humming My Chemical Romance when grading papers now. Also, I don’t doubt that Gen is very resourceful. It’s just I’m one of his resources and I’m very eager to help. Kitten, you know where I keep my knives collection, just in case. But somehow I doubt you’ll need it, this guy seems pretty reasonable. Unlike your ex inside.”

“I sincerely doubt that too, Stanley-chan, however, Ryuusui-chan is not my ex and I think you’re getting a wrong idea here...” Gen chuckled awkwardly. He noticed Senkuu’s eyes jerk away in panic for a second when he said the last part of the sentence. “And also it’s not like I could use your knives.”

“If you can throw flowers at people, you should manage with knives too.”

“Throwing flowers at people? Is there a story?” Senkuu asked with his usual smirk.

“No story, just Gen being Gen,” Stanley summarized. “Our adorable magical cat. Did he show you his card tricks yet? They really are like magic,” he smiled, breathing out a smoke ring. Gen couldn’t resist and poked it on the top changing the shape into a heart. “Magic,” Stanley repeated as if it wasn’t clear yet. 

“I don’t know whether to be offended or flattered, Stanley-chan...”

Unexpectedly, Xeno stepped out on the balcony, wielding a box wrapped in furoshiki and a book.

“Senkuu, I packed some dinner for your father since he’s not here with us,” he announced, giving the box to his surprised student.

“Wow, thanks, professor. By the way, dad sends his regards by the way, to you and your life partner, as he has phrased it,” Senkuu added, taking the box with gratitude.

“Don’t thank me, I just packed it. Stanley cooked it,” Xeno corrected. “I’m also lending you this,” he placed a worn-out copy of _Elegant Universe_ on the top of the wrapped box. “Take care of it, it’s one of my favorites.”

“Damn, Munchkin,” Stanley sighed with resignation, lowering his head to rest on Xeno’s shoulder. The arm smoothly wrapped around Xeno’s waist. “You were supposed to take it easy on the recruiting to your quantum cult.”

“It’s not a cult, Stan!” Xeno rolled his eyes dramatically. “It’s a perfectly reasonable scientific theory that makes much more sense than you intoxicating your lungs or comparing me to a fictional childlike creature but somehow you still insist on doing it.”

“Fair point. But sorry, the most useful part of quantum mechanics is that it’s great for flirting with physicists. Remember that, Gen, usually works like magic. At least it always does on Xeno,” Stan shared with a smile.

They all glared at his supposed childhood friend.

“Aren’t you going to deny it, Xeno-chan?” Gen asked sweetly.

“Why would I deny it? It’s obvious,” Xeno didn’t look a tad bit ashamed. “The individuals who understand the string theory and can talk about it tend to be more attractive. Not that I consider it that much now, since I’m in an established relationship with someone who used Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle to convince me to date them and Stanley will never let me forget it because I agreed, even though they butchered it.”

Gen had no idea what Heisenberg's principle was but still, he felt very moved. Especially, since Stanley who was always in full control of his reactions, blushed slightly, which was unseen.

Gen hoped one day they would finally tell him the whole story. As much as he enjoyed their little game, he would love to know a lot more about them as a couple.

“Kinda funny, professor, that you’d let something not perfect slide, I always pictured you as someone with extremely high standards,” Senkuu couldn’t resist little mocking.

“Well, maybe my secret lover doesn’t have a Ph.D. but they did graduate college majoring in physics with extremely high marks. They can count integrals while doing yoga. And they know all the lyrics of My Chemical Romance songs by heart.”

“Let’s go back inside, the food is probably ready and you’re getting over dramatical again,” Stanley dropped this cigarette into one of the ten ashtrays they had scattered around the house. He grabbed his fiancé’s writs and pulled him inside, opting for a tactical retreat.

Senkuu made a move like he wanted to follow them but Gen grabbed his sleeve, holding him back. They lingered behind for a moment. As soon as Xeno and Stan disappeared in the living room, Gen asked seriously:

“Senkuu-chan, will you teach me the basics of quantum physics?”

“You have your eyes on some physicist, Mentalist?” Senkuu teased with a warm smile on his face.

“It’s more that I want to know more about my favourite couple,” Gen answered innocently. “They are so adorable...”

“You realize you can just ask them to tell you everything in detail?”

“Sure, I can,” Gen grinned. “But where’s fun in that?”

“You’re right,” Senkuu nodded with understanding. “Get ready for quantum physics for highly intelligent dummies.”

Maybe it was the fact that they’ve spent their whole day together, maybe it was because Senkuu was terribly cute, whatever the reason actually was, Gen followed the urge to lean in and kiss Senkuu’s cheek. His heart might have skipped a bit when he realized what he’s done but he didn’t let it show. The other boy had immediately gotten bright red, which looked kind of funny since the color differed strikingly from his hair. Gen couldn’t help beaming. 

“Thanks, Senkuu-chan,” he cooed and quickly moved away, taking a few steps toward the living room. “Are you coming?”

“I have a feeling you are going to be the death of me, Asagiri Gen,” Senkuu announced seriously, looking at him with a sly, almost daring grin.

“It’s my pleasure, Senkuu-chan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another fun fact about snipers (FBI in particular) that I found out around the same time when I found out about yoga: they do need a 4-year college degree and there are some tests that they have to pass for which physics would be extremely useful (not that surprising tbh).
> 
> I actually have an epub of 'Elegant Universe' but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet but I literally died when I found out that this book existed and the author looks a little bit like Xeno. Just a little bit.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Dears~ I come back to the world of the living!   
> To be honest, I knew masters would be harder than bachelor but... well, let's just say I underestimated how much effort studying for the exams would take and January passed as just a blur for me T_T But somehow I passed, with surprisingly high marks!   
> On my way to recovery, I took a stop to fully descend into the blissful hell of MXTX's novels and that was one of the best ideas ever. I highly recommend it!   
> So MXTX wrote 3 novels that are set in this wonderful fantastic world of ancient China with a small twist - the main protagonist is male and so his love interest. I love so many things about those novels, the world-building is astonishing and the author never just says that idk this character is good or smart, the characters are extremely complex and shown through their actions so you can decide what you think about them on your own, without the narrative forcing you to think in a particular way. All three got their adaptations and are great.   
> 1\. Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - it's about a sassy nerd who transmigrated into a trashy novel he was hating on the internet when he choked on the bun and died. Literally the funniest shit I read in 2020. It also has an awesome 10 ep 3D animation available on youtube with second season coming this year.   
> 2\. Mo Dao Zu Shi - basically a man with a flute, his bestie who has a life long crush on him, their pet zombie, and some other babies (okay, minors). Fluff and angst. A shit ton of angst. And fluff. I cried and laughed so much. It also has donghua with the final season coming this year and well, the TV series (but I don't like the latter really, they twisted some of my favorite characters so much there!). And yup, I already started writing a fic for this one. It has 3 chapters already and it's growing into a healthy fic that will be wholesome and good. I hope to see some of you in the comments there!  
> 3\. Tian Guang Ci Fu - actually it's my favorite but I have no words to describe it. It's just this quiet, sad, extremely wholesome story. And it has a perfect donghua adaptation. What else can I say, I can't sleep because I keep thinking about it, check out the clips the studio put on youtube to understand why. 
> 
> So most of the people lately have been trying to make me shut up because I just keep babbling about MXTX's novels wherever I go and they are probably right. So I will shut up. (Join me in this happy hell, really, it's totally worth it)
> 
> Anyways, thank you all for your patience! And thank you, BingX for yet another wonderful art! I feel so spoiled! <3   
> https://bingxxx.tumblr.com/post/639806054557007872/shy-lover-vs-mad-lover-still
> 
> And now, finally, enjoy this loooooong chapter!

Ukyou stared at Gen with some strange bewilderment. Gen did understand where it was coming from, after all, he was sitting on a couch on Saturday night with only a box of ice cream and some ridiculous Netflix series to keep him company. It was clear that he was moping and he put little effort into conceiving it or maybe none at all. 

“Weren’t you meeting Senkuu today?” Ukyou asked.

“He canceled on me. Some friend of Xeno-chan’s is in town and they invited him to a scientific get-together,” Gen explained, sounding dejected.

It wasn’t really a big deal, he’s been spending a lot of time together with Senkuu over the past two weeks – they went to see a Pokemon movie with Senkuu’s childhood friends Taiju and Yuzuriha, they had a lot of fun with their falconry class and they watched some movies recommended by the teacher last weekend. Also, Senkuu took Gen’s request to teach him quantum physics very seriously and actually had the outline of the whole study plan, they even met two times over a coffee already.

One raincheck was nothing, honestly, something that Gen expected since Senkuu was the type of person who would definitely prioritize a chance to learn something new or to conduct some experiment over a casual meetup.

Honestly, Gen was surprised Senkuu canceled their plans only once and at the same time was yet to bring Gen to his lab as a help. Although Gen expected that would happen soon.

“And that’s why you’re moping? I was having a beer with Ryuusui, we would have invited you if we knew,” Ukyou sighed. “But really, you should have expected that. You know how often Stanley complains that Xeno changed their plans because he had some science to do. Sorry to say that but Senkuu seems like a person who would do that too.”

“I know,” Gen said. “It’s not about that. It’s just... He’s confusing me so much, Ukyou-chan! I’m good at reading people, that’s what I am and I’m getting so, so many mixed signals from him!” he pouted. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Okay,” Ukyou nodded with acceptance. He sat down on the couch next to Gen, resting his head on the back pillow. “Vent out. I’ll hear you out.”

“You’re a wonderful friend, Ukyou-chan, you know that?”

“Huh...” Ukyou blushed slightly. “...So how is there someone you can’t just read like an open book?” 

“Wait, first...” Gen put away his box of ice cream to look more serious. “From an outsider perspective, does our relationship seem more of a bromance, a broship, or a ship?”

“Gen, I saw him three times, and only once I actually spent time with him, not to mention that I’m influenced by your constant whining. So I’m far from objective. However, “ Ukyou made a dramatic pause. “I think he might be into you? I mean come on, he made you a cat hairpin. You don’t make cat hairpins for your bros, Gen.”

“I would totally make some cute hairbands for Tsukasa-chan. His hair is so majestic.”

“... Fair point. I’m out of arguments. Except for one.”

“I’m all ears.”

“He’s looking at you a lot. Kind of reminds me of the way Xeno and Stan look at each other sometimes with this strange mixture of respect, amusement, and care. Interpret it however you want.”

Gen remained silent for a moment, thinking about it. Ukyou did manage to calm him down a little.

“Thanks. It means a lot,” Gen smiled weakly. “But... also I might have slightly screwed up when we went to the movies?” he sighed. “I’m such a relationship failure lately, what has happened to me?”

“Probably the fact that he’s the first guy you actually do care about since... I don’t even know how long. So what did you do?”

“Well...” Gen took a deep breath in. “So Senkuu-chan is like super cautious about this thing between us. And I’m pretty sure he would be very much satisfied if we were just friends, nothing more.”

“And you’re not cool with potentially being slowly friendzoned,” Ukyou guessed. “What did you do? Kiss him out of the blue and he ran away? I’m offended that you didn’t tell me.”

“I did the opposite. When I think about it, I might have actually unintentionally encouraged him that being friends is a better idea and I feel like he took it at a face value. I know his type, I bet he thinks relationships are way much more hustle than they are worth, just one push from me was enough for him and I’m an idiot who gave him two. I’m afraid we’re friends, Ukyou-chan,” he confessed with horror worth of the most traumatic experience.

“Details,” Ukyou rolled his eyes, clearly thinking Gen was just overdramatic.

“So, the night of DnD, he told me that he would be always satisfied by being friends with me and asked how about me.”

“Oh no. How did you mess that one up? It was easy, you could have cleared all up in one sentence!”

“As powerful as my magic is, I can’t stop time and there was little I could do to stop Stanley from interrupting us. So I said nothing.”

“Damn. That’s bad,” Ukyou sighed. “I mean, it would be fine but not in the case when you’re fighting friendzone.”

“Yeah, and the other day... When we went out to see the Pokemon movie, it turned out that those friends of his are a cute little couple so if I have put a little more effort into it, I could have changed it into a double date but I didn’t want to make Senkuu uncomfortable so I didn’t push but... you know how I don’t like to be touched out of the blue?”

Ukyou glared at the protective layers of blankets and sweaters Gen was wrapped up in, even though it wasn’t really that cold.

“Kind of hard not to notice.”

“So I think during the movie Senkuu-chan might have wanted to hold my hand? Well, I’ll never know because when our fingers brushed so suddenly, I jerked my arm away pretty obviously.”

“Auch.”

“But hey, I did some other stuff antastic-fay!” Gen defended himself. “I made him blush a bunch of times, the night of DnD he acknowledged that we were flirting and I also kissed his cheek. So he knows that I’m into him.”

Ukyou let out I tired groan.

“Why can’t you just ask him out? I mean.. he likes you, you like him, what’s the problem? And if your problem is that it would be too easy or direct for someone like you then just ask Xeno to play matchmaker, I bet he would love to get involved.”

“Ukyou-chan,” Gen cocked his head a little. “You don’t get the issue here, do you?”

They spent a moment just staring at each other.

“No, I don’t think so,” Ukyou admitted.

“Okay. It’s fine, I’m the Mentalist. Let me explain it to you.”

Gen twisted himself out from the blankets and grabbed one of his notebooks left on the coffee table. He ripped out a page and turned the notebook into the writing pad. He drew a long, straight line on the top of the page.

“So you see, there are people like Ryuusui-chan who would be very much fine with going out with someone who asked them out right away. If they are hot, of course,” he added an R at the right end of the scale. “They are also quite easy maintenance, they are happy with any dates and full of their own initiative. And they are romantic, pushing harder will only make them like you more. And on the other side of the scale we have people like Stanley-chan,” he wrote ‘S’ on the left side. “Who will turn down anyone that comes near unless they are his best friend since forever, soulmate and so on. And pushing will only get one punched in the face. Most of the people are somewhere in the middle but they have a rather huge interval of tolerance. Let’s take our Tsukasa-chan for example. He’s kind of shy and cautious but when he’s already with someone, he’s a good boy who will be happy with anything and definitely with devotion and romantic gestures,” Gen drew a huge rectangle interval across over the line, closer to Ryuusui’s side. “Is this clear?”

“No, it’s no good. You should split it into two axes and have a two-dimensional graph.”

“A brilliant idea, Ukyou-chan!” he promptly applied necessary changes. “Okay, so we have the axis X which is about how well the person has to know the other person to date them. On the left, we keep people who will only date their best friend and soulmate and need time to accustom to the idea of dating. Like Stanley-chan who I cannot imagine even looking at anyone else than Xeno-chan and not only because they are my OTP. Now, Y-axis is the maintenance. So at the bottom, we have people who don’t like affection. And on the top, we add the romantic attention whores, simps, and Ryuusui-chan.”

“This looks nice,” Ukyou approved. “So where’s Senku?”

“I would say it’s around here and this size,” Gen added a very small circle close to the bottom and Stanley’s end but a little more to the right.

“That’s incredibly small.”

“Now,” Gen ignored the comment and moved on, “to make Senkuu fall in love with me or at least want to be my boyfriend, I need to keep our relationship in within the interval of Y-axis while waiting until we’re close enough to get into the interval on X-axis. I push too hard, he runs away. I push too little, he friendzones me. Now, I’ve been trying my best to balance things out but I’m close to my hitting my limits here. I want a hug from a boyfriend not from you.”

“Gen, you’re my best friend so I’m going to treat you and your overcomplicated problem seriously,” Ukyou said. “Just to say that out loud, I believe you should just tell him you like him. But, since for whatever reason you can’t, we need to analyze your whole relationship step by step in detail to make sure you didn’t violate the intervals. And to do it properly, we need to borrow one of Xeno’s whiteboards and draw on it.”

“I love the way you’re thinking, Ukyou-chan!” Gen clapped his hands with excitement. “Let’s go upstairs and take one!”

He threw away his blankets, revealing that all along he has been wearing his pink pajamas with unicorn print and a warm, baggy sweatshirt over it. He leaned over, closing the lid over the ice cream, and then stood up to put it in the freezer. Ukyou glared as he was moving around the flat.

“Maybe you should change before going out?”

“For Xeno-chan? I believe he’s the kind of man who would acknowledge the stylishness of my pajamas,” Gen shrugged.

Ukyou’s eyes jerked up for a moment, looking at the ceiling. They went back right away but when Gen combined it with the amused smile that was playing at the corner of his friend’s lips, he was sure that Ukyou was not telling him something. He toyed with the idea of bringing it up in the conversation for a moment but then shrugged it off, thinking that whatever it was, Ukyou wasn’t an asshole so, if it was really important, he would tell him himself.

Less than five minutes later, when they entered Xeno’s place, he would regret it. It turned out Xeno was having a rather peculiar pajama party of his own, with just two guests, Senkuu and a cute American girl with a long ponytail and thick glasses. Gen had a hard time figuring out exactly how old was she, his safe guess was that she was in her early teens.

He had no idea what connections could Xeno have with such a young cute girl but she has been a bright ray of sunshine amidst Xeno’s dark steampunk apartment decor.

They seem to have been playing some game, there has been a huge world map sprawled across the living room floor, with some small houses, pawns, and handwritten cards all over it.

Senkuu was slightly shocked by Gen’s and Ukyou’s visit, it showed on his face. For a moment he seemed frozen but quickly calmed down, seeming to have reasoned with himself. In a blink of an eye, he was staring at Gen with his usual grin.

“Hi!” the girl welcomed them. “Are you Xeno’s friends? I’m Chelsea!”

“Yup, I’m his friend, my name is Ukyou,” he introduced himself, placing a hand on his flatmate’s shoulder. “And this is Gen, Xeno’s human-cat. Nice to meet you! But kidnapping young girls, Xeno? I can’t wait until to tell Stan.”

Xeno rolled his eyes dramatically and was ready to talk back but Chelsea beat him to it.

“I was here at a conference and Xeno let me stay over since we’re besties! And he’s introduced me to his other bestie,” she beamed at Senkuu. “It has been so cool! And they are so funny, you know that they talk science in sync?!”

Gen giggled, enamored with her innocent charm. He sat down next to Senkuu. Ukyou clearly agreed with his way of thinking since took the spot on the armchair, good for overseeing the situation.

“I noticed, the other day I walked in and they were blowing gigantic bubbles can you believe?” Gen smiled at her.

“I told you it was for science,” Senkuu nudged Gen on the side with his elbow.

“And I believed you without a shadow of a doubt, my dear Senkuu,” Gen assured him in the as serious voice as he could pull off, patting him on the wrist. “So what are you playing today?”

“That’s a super awesome game! It is a bit inspired by the DnD Senkuu and Xeno played, we imagine that we’re 4000 thousand years in the future and people were turned into stone so we need to rebuild the civilization!”

“Yeah, we use the resources that are already there geographically, we use chemistry and engineering to rediscover inventions. Prof. is kinda winning now since he rolled platinum as the starting bonus and now he has his own corn flakes factory, guns, and recording system. Dr. Chelsea has pumpkin fields and pumpkin fashion line so she’s super cool too.”

“Don’t be modest Senkuu,” Xeno scowled. “You’re doing a truly elegant job with your civilization, especially taking into consideration that you’re the only player without Ph.D. here, and I blame the Japanese education system for it, not you,” he added. “Senkuu is just playing less agro, he’s been investing a lot of his moves into reviving the workforce,” he thoroughly explained to the group.

“And he has electricity, phones, engines, and antibiotics!” Chelsea added.

“Why would you need antibiotics in this game?” Ukyou raised his eyebrows. “I mean... I get why they would be useful but they hardly should be a priority here...”

“Those are calamity cards,” Senkuu pointed to the pile of handwritten cards in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. “Mine said that my key politician got pneumonia and would die if I didn’t invent antibiotics in 10 turns. And them dying would undermine science authority and cause a civil war that would not only waste a few of my turns but I would lose 3 random inventions.”

“This game seems so brutal,” Gen gasped.

“Are you scientists too? Would you like to play with us?” Chelsea invited them cheerfully.

“Don’t push them Chelsea, we are already too far into the game for more people to join in,” Xeno said. “And they only came to borrow my whiteboard. You can use the one in the bedroom, one side is clean.”

“I think we’ll stay, this game seems pretty fun to watch. As long as you don’t mind the audience?” Ukyou looked around the room, at Gen in particular.

“You can stay, no probs!” Chelsea reassured.

“Senkuu-chan,” Gen used the commotion to whisper into his friend’s ear. “If I understand correctly, Xeno-chan is winning?”

“He’s fucking butchering us and he’s got devil’s luck,” Senkuu whispered back. “We even talked about joining forces against him when he went to the bathroom. We’ll win but it’s going to be hard.”

Gen didn’t need long to know what he had to do.

“I have a splendid idea!” he proposed cheerfully. “How about I join Senkuu and Ukyou joins Chelsea-chan? I mean, we’re not scientists, we’re pretty much worthless!”

“So, you’re planning on ganging up on me?” Xeno saw right through it.

“Well, but aren’t you ashamed of beating two teenagers at your own game, Xeno-chan?” Gen smiled sweetly.

“Fine, you can join,” Xeno rolled his eyes tragically. “But Senkuu can be hardly considered an innocent teenager when he’s twenty.”

“He’s still your student.”

“Don’t talk back, kitten,” Xeno winced.

Playing as a team proved to be much more difficult than they imagined. The game has so many rules Gen and Ukyou felt completely lost, not only because their engineering skills were on a different level than the rest. In the end, Xeno excused himself to make some tea for everyone and advised them to have strategic meetings in the meantime. Gen supposed it was a good idea, so he pulled Senkuu out on the balcony.

“Okay, Senkuu, now tell me, can how can we make a plane? Because the boat and a balloon are very much cool but that won’t be enough, I’m pretty much convinced that Xeno-chan is making a submarine! Does this game provide the means to steal his workforce? Because that’s the only way we’re going to win!” Gen overdramatized.

“Whoa, calm down. Yeah, everything is under control,” Senkuu chuckled. “Next turn we’re stealing one of his planes, we do our best, prepare some bombs and weapons, and we should be okay for the battle. If it’s at least a draw, we can take away part of his workforce and that will finally throw him off the advantage. But we need to cause a commotion first, so he won’t be guarding the planes. He doesn’t have enough people to cover everything so should be easy enough.”

“Yup, I can take care of that, I see at least ten ways of distracting him that will undoubtedly work.”

“Great. Good to have you back me up, Mentalist,” he grinned. “Actually... I also wanted to apologize. Sorry for canceling on you today. It’s not that you’re not important to me. It’s just that, you know... science. Chelsea is kind of famous so I couldn’t let a chance to meet her slip away,” he explained, clearly having no regrets.

“I totally get it, Senkuu-chan, I would totally do the same to you if there was a famous psychologist in town or something. We ended up spending the evening together either way, isn’t it funny?” Gen tittered, moving a little closer to Senkuu.

“Yeah, it turned out quite well. I’m happy you’re here, Mentalist, and not only because together we can destroy Xeno,” Senkuu confessed lightly, making Gen’s heart skip a beat. “Just because you’re a great company.”

“Well, I would hope you think so too because I do enjoy spending time with you very much and, in all honesty...”

Gen paused, the sole idea that he could actually say what he wanted right here and now made his face heat up. Senkuu was waiting for him to finish and the anxious anticipation in his eyes made Gen reconsider his whole theory about intervals. In an instant, on a pure hunch, he decided to throw it all away.

“... I like you quite a lot, Senkuu-chan. As more than a friend.”

Senkuu’s eyes opened wide in shock. Gen was thinking fast, in panic. He knew that now, since he didn’t get an immediate answer, he couldn’t stay because it would tempt Senkuu into changing the subject. Or maybe rejecting him flat out.

He couldn’t have Senkuu do that, he needed the other boy to have time to think it through properly.

So he smiled with charming innocence as if he didn’t just drop a bomb on their current relationship. And then, he took a flight, without looking back. He quickly marched through the living room, barely noticing Ukyou’s confused gape, and walked right to the kitchen, finding refuge by Xeno’s side.

He sat down by the table, letting out a long, disheartened sigh.

“Something’s wrong, kitten?”

“...I might have just been too hasty about something. Can we please avoid having the next strategic meeting?”

He was thinking, analyzing (probably overanalyzing) the current situation. It seemed strange that Senkuu was shocked, Gen made his feeling pretty obvious earlier or so he’s thought. Maybe what surprised him was the head-on approach. Or something else.

Whatever it was, he wanted to give Senkuu time to properly think it through. The best would be if he had a chance to sleep over it. He glanced at the clock, it was nine pm, and they’ve just started the game so he couldn’t leave without being suspicious.

He should have waited for a better occasion, why didn’t he think about it and just asked on a stupid hunch...

A tender but fierce pat on the head made him jerk up and come back to reality. Xeno ruffled his hair with love.

“I am going to ask again. Is something wrong, kitten?”

“I’ve just confessed to Senkuu,” he explained quietly.

To his surprise, instead of consoling him, Xeno grinned with disturbing excitement glimmering in his eyes.

“Excellent.”

“No, Xeno-chan, this is far from excellent,” Gen rolled his eyes. His voice trembled a little. Just a little. “It was too soon, out of blue, the wrong timing... But why do you think it’s excellent?”

“Because you’re my brilliant kitten and I know that if your guts were telling you to do something, it was the right thing to do,” Xeno smiled warmly and caressed his cheek. “And also because recently I realized that Senkuu is truly my favorite student and he has a lot of good qualities. He’s good enough for you. And smart enough. Kind of hard to find one of those so I’m happy.”

“As a cat, I am extremely glad my self-proclaimed owner approves of my romantic interest choice,” Gen strained a smile. “But you, as his fellow crazy scientist, do you think he wants to date me? Because that’s the problem here.”

“Stanley’s once told me I’m utterly horrible at recognizing people’s feelings so I will hold back with my opinion.”

Gen was tempted to ask Xeno about how he and Stan got together, hoping to find some reassurance in the story. But also, he knew that making tea wouldn’t take long enough and someone would probably interrupt. The safest option was going back to the living room and restarting the game.

Still, he couldn’t help himself.

“Was it easy for you and the secret lover to get together?”

“Of course not. Do you see myself making things easy for anyone?” Xeno looked down at his friend and Gen chuckled.

“True, Xeno-chan.”

“But don’t worry, Senkuu is much more pragmatic and rational than I am so you should be fine, kitten. You’re a formidable catch, Senkuu is too smart not to notice how fabulous you are.”

They were interrupted by the doorbell. Xeno exchanged glances with Gen and turned towards the corridor, Gen swiftly followed. As he suspected, on the other side of the door waited Stanley who was probably too lazy and too jet-lagged to look for his keys.

Xeno immediately threw his arms around Stanley’s neck and got crushed in a hug in return.

“Hello, dear,” Stanley chuckled and glanced at Gen and in the direction of the living room from where the other guest’s voices could be heard. “Having a party without me? I’m hurt.”

“Why didn’t you call me that you’re coming? I could have picked you up from the airport,” Xeno pouted.

“Last time we did that, while waiting for me you saw an ad about a robot conference in Seul, you kidnapped and dragged me to Korea on the first plane we could catch. Not that I didn’t appreciate the romantic get-away but I also know that you have classes tomorrow so I decided not to tempt you.”

“How cute,” Gen smiled a little less brightly than usual. “Welcome back, Stanley-chan.”

“Hi, kitten,” Stan smiled back. “Why is our cat looking down?” he turned to Xeno.

“Because he’s a liar who just confessed his true feelings to his object of interest,” Xeno explained lowering his voice. “Who is also here so whisper.”

“Nice. How did the leek take it?”

“He was surprised, mostly,” Gen said.

“That’s way better than Xeno. He broke his future life partner’s phone.”

“And to think I actually did miss you, Stanley,” Xeno dramatically rolled his eyes. “Welcome home.”

“Good to be back... Gen, do me a favor and close your eyes for three seconds,” Stan asked.

Gen let out an overdramatic sigh and covered his eyes with palms.

“I’m giving you ten.”

Gen started counting loudly, so Stanley could exhaust his welcome back kiss to the very time limit. When he opened his eyes again, of course, they were just standing next to each other as if nothing happened but they both looked shamelessly smug.

“So Stan, we have guests, one of them is a minor who’s staying the night so please, limit the air pollution and cussing. As well as combat knives, guns and everything that may terrify cute little girls.”

“I leave you alone for two weeks and we have a baby now?” Stan blink. “Did you grow it or build it in your lab?”

“I met it at a scientific conference,” Xeno cleared up. “Come, I’ll introduce you.”

He pulled Stanley to the living room where everybody waited. Ukyou immediately jumped up and hugged his military friend. Senkuu stood up too but instead of a hug he got a dreadful pat on the arm that was very ambiguous, especially combined with Stanley’s smile and cold glare. Senkuu’s eyes jerked to Gen, clearly begging for a translation but the other boy just grinned and shrugged innocently.

Chelsea was gaping at Stan with her mouth wide open. When he saw her, Gen noticed that his hand unintentionally reached for the pocket where he was keeping the cigarettes but, in the end, he didn’t take the package out.

“Shouting soldier!” Chelsea exclaimed, more with curiosity than dread. “What are you doing here?!” Before Stanley could reply, she ran to him and wrapped her arms around him. “Sorry for stealing your cigarettes at the conference!”

“Oh, don’t worry that was not the worst thing that happened to me during that conference,” Stanley replied, quite hesitant about hugging her back. He patted her on the head instead. “Sorry for suspecting you were just a kid who snuck into scientific conference just to eat pumpkin muffins. And for trying to report you as a lost child.”

“No worries! I found my speaker badge so they cleared me right away! But why are you here?” her eyes beamed with curiosity.

“I live here,” Stanley cocked his head. “And you, pumpkin girl?”

“My name is Chelsea, and this is my bestie,” she pointed at Xeno.

“Oh, sweet young little girl,” Stanley sighed at her childish naivety. “I’m his best friend, soulmate, partner for life, and...” he froze and looked up at Xeno. “So that’s when you disappeared at the NASA Expo. You were making other besties.”

“Stanley, I can’t believe you’re still mad about NASA Expo,” Xeno completely discarded the possibility that Stanley’s trauma might have been real.

It seemed to have triggered Stanley a bit. Gen could feel the danger arising, it was like that one time when Stanley’s just read favorite cigarettes were to be banned in Japan and Tsukasa simply stood up and left the room, following his fighter instincts that screamed at him to run away as fast as he could.

“Oh, I’ll always be mad about the NASA Expo, dear,” Stanley assured him a bit too sweetly. “And you!” he scowled. “It means you stole not only my cigarettes but also my fiancé,” he accused with a cold glare.

Gen, Ukyou, and Senkuu, who sat down on the couch and quietly watched the show, simultaneously let out a scandalized gasp.

“Oh my gosh, you’re engaged?!” Chelsea chippered and immediately turned to envelop Xeno in a loving hug. “Congrats! He’s kinda scary, mean, and old but also very handsome. Good for you, bestie!”

Stanley looked like he was about to throw a fit so Gen decided to intervene while there still was a pajama party to be saved.

“Stanley-chan, why don’t you sit down here,” he stood up and led Stan to the couch. “And tell us your story. Then, Chelsea-chan can tell hers and we can all apologize and play the unfair but enjoyable game that we have here on the floor.”

Stanley looked at the map on the floor. He quickly assessed the game, as if he immediately understood what was going on and exchanged a glance with Xeno that might have counted as their strategic meeting. Gen hoped that Stanley would want to rest a bit before actually joining them because he had a feeling that if his two neighbors were to actually join forces, they would slaughter them in less than ten turns.

Then, Stanley looked around the group, all of them were waiting for the story, except for Xeno, who didn’t seem to care. 

“Fine,” Stan agreed. “But so you know, girl, I’m the same age as Xeno. Don’t get fooled by his baby face and those big eyes of his. So anyway, last summer, we went back home to San Francisco for a few weeks and so it happened that there was a NASA Expo, we both got invited. I saw a lost kid eating a ton of pumpkin cupcakes... long story short the kid wasn’t really a kid but an acknowledged scientist and in revenge for me shouting at her, she stole my cigarettes and run away with them claiming it was for my health’s sake.

“I went out to buy some more and when I came back, I couldn’t find Xeno, he completely disappeared, barely responded to my texts saying that he’s having a great time with some scientists. It was fine but he didn’t show up when we were supposed to come back, he didn’t pick up his phone, just sent me a text that he’s going to come back later on his own.”

“I don’t know why it surprises you, Stanley,” Xeno shrugged. “I lived in the area most of my life and I was an adult in my former workplace, I knew my way around and I had a lot of acquaintances there.”

“Yeah, doesn’t change the fact that you’re an asshole who doesn’t pick up his phone. Anyways, I went home and stayed up the whole night worrying and both our mothers laughed because I lost him like that one time during a field trip in the elementary school when he snuck out to steal some illegal chemicals from the government facility our class was visiting. But it was worse because I actually lost an adult with a smartphone. His mother ridiculed me the whole night.”

“You really worry too much what my mother thinks about you, Stan,” Xeno said, taking a sip of his tea, not shaken by the story. “And where I go.”

“Are you surprised? You believe in aliens,” Stanley glared. “Xeno came back after a few days looking like he lived in a tent, utterly exhausted and muttering something about how he underestimated geography and that it could be elegant, after all.”

“That’s because we went to the mountains on a trip!” Chelsea explained in a cheerful voice. “We talked a bunch and ate marshmallows!”

“I can’t believe you left me alone with our mothers to have your girls' scout experience,” Stanley sighed. “But honestly, this is way better than what I expected. Still, you could have apologized.”

“For what? I couldn’t have called you, there was no reception,” Xeno shrugged.

“I’m sorry for kidnapping your fiancé,” Chelsea apologized instead, hugging Stanley again. “Let’s start over. I’m Dr. Chelsea and since you’re my bestie’s fiancé, let’s be friends!” she let go of him and stretched out her hand.

“Oh, so we’re doing titles? Colonel Stanley. Fine, let’s be friends,” he agreed and shook it with resignation.

“Great! Do you want to play with us? We came up with a really awesome game.”

“Sure. But I’ve gotta take a shower first, it was a long flight.”

He stood up and left the room. Gen was immediately on Xeno, as soon as the bathroom door closed.

“Xeno-chan, you really aren’t going to apologize?” Gen whispered to his friend with determination.

“Of course not. Stanley and I don’t apologize to each other when we don’t mean it.”

“Under normal circumstances, I would probably find it adorable but now I’m forced to say, you’re both assholes,” Gen sighed.

“We’re perfectly well-functioning life partners, as Byakuya likes to call us.”

“Xeno!” they heard Stanley’s voice over the running shower. “Forgot a change of clothes, can you bring me some?”

“Coming!” Xeno smirked a little mischievously. “Now, I’m going to find something appropriate for him to wear so you have a couple of minutes to talk about what are you going to do with the game. I’m feeling generous so I’ll give you a hint: stealing the plane won’t work. Good luck!”

He left the room not really holding back the evil laughter. All four of them looked at each other.

“You wanted to steal his plane too?” Chelsea asked.

“Do you have a plan, Dr. Chelsea? Senkuu-chan?” Gen hopefully look. “Or... I think he was bluffing.”

“But he knows you’d see through it,” Ukyou pointed out. “So it’s a trap, he wants us to steal the plane.”

“Dr. Chelsea, is it time for the alliance?” Senkuu offered.

“Yes! And you know what we’re going to do?”

“I’m going to establish a trade route to your colony in South America and we’re starting rubber production,” Senkuu grinned maliciously. “And then we block him off, monopolize roads, his science will be worth little if he has no access to resources.”

“Exactly! And we win!” Chelsea announced merrily. “But it will take over an hour, you’ll be fine getting home, Senkuu?”

“You can sleep at our place,” Ukyou offered immediately, “the couch is not that comfortable but I’m sure Gen wouldn’t mind sharing his bed.”

Gen admired how smartly Ukyou managed to play the wingman here but at the same time, it was absolutely the worst moment he could have proposed that.

“Thanks but I need to be early at the lab in the morning so I’m gonna pass,” Senkuu smoothly declined. “I appreciate the offer, though.”

Gen did his best not to show how relieved he was.

They kept discussing the strategy until the very moment their hosts arrived. Even though Xeno’s shirt was partially wet, he has found his clawed gloves so he looked very menacing. Stanley didn’t fall far behind with his joyful pajamas with tiny Indians, damp hair, and a lit cigarette between his lips.

“Lovely pajamas, Stanley-chan.”

“Thanks. Xeno got them for me because I had almost the same when I was ten and he thought it would be funny.”

“Stanley, I saw you reading Native American folktales last month don’t pretend you got over it,” Xeno teased him.

“Says the guy who insisted we drag his My Chemical Romance merch collection all the way to Japan,” Stanley mocked. “Okay, brats, Xeno explained to me in general what this game is about so let’s play.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I noticed that in the chapter with pre-petrification Stan, he had colonel insignia on his uniform but I may be wrong, I don't know much about the army. When I discovered it, I couldn't stop laughing for a while because my brain created a link between Colonel Snyder -> Colonel Sanders from the KFC game in particular. Just imagine Stanley in shoujo lighting with a KFC bucket.
> 
> I hope you've enjoyed the chapter! I'll be back soon!


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